LOW

COST

ARCHITECTURE

ASSIGNMENT NO. – 1

LAURIE BAKER

SUBMITTED BY:-

VIKAS DAHIYA

0906038

IX-SEM

CONTENTS
 1. LOW COST ARCHITECTURE
2. INTRODUCTION TO LAURIE BAKER
3. CONCEPTS AND STYLES
4. COST EFFECTIVE TECHNIQUES
5. LAURIE BAKER’S WORKS
6. THE HAMLET – LAURIE BAKERS HOME
7. CENTER FOR DEVELOPMENT STUDIES - TRIVANDRUM
8. LOYOLA CHAPPEL AND AUDITORIUM
9. COSTFORD
10.REFERENCES

LOW COST ARCHITECTURE:-

 ‘Low cost’ or ‘ Cost reduction’ is not only concerning economy. Most building
materials are manufactured articles like burnt bricks/steel/glass/cement. Their
respective cost are one important consideration but just as important is the question of
how much energy or fuel was used in their manufacture.
 The use of local materials is an example of economy because there is no transport
costs. These styles show that people has discovered that there is a right way or a
wrong way to putting materials together so that they are strong and durable.

LAURIE BAKER
Laurence Wilfred "Laurie" Baker (2 March 1917 – 1 April 2007)

 He was a British-born Indian architect.

 He was renowned for his initiatives in cost-effective energy-efficient architecture and
for his unique space utilisation and simple but aesthetic sensibility.
 He sought to incorporate simple designs with local materials and achieved fame with
his approach to sustainable architecture as well as in organic architecture.
 As he influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, He has been called the "Gandhi of
architecture"
 Baker studied architecture inBinmingham and graduated in 1937, aged 20, in a period
of political unrest for Europe.
 He worked as an architect for international and interdenominational Mission
dedicated to the care of those suffering from leprosy.
 He focused on converting or replacingasylums once used to house the ostracized
suffers of the disease – ‘lepers’.
 He used indigenous architecture and method of these places as means to deal with his
once daunting problems.

“I never build for classes of people – high income, middle income or low income
groups, tribals or fishermen. I only build for a Matthew, a Bhaskaran, a Muneer,
or a Sankaran.”
 - Laurence Wilfreid ‘Laurie’ Baker

CONCEPTS AND STYLE OF BAKER:-

 Designing and building low cost, high quality, beautiful home.
 Suited to or built for lower- middle to lower class clients.
 Irregular, pyramid like structures on roof, with one side left open and tilting into the
wind.
 Brick jail wall, a perforated brick screen which utilises natural air movement to cool
the home’s interior and create intricate patterns of light and shadow.
 Baker’s design invariably have traditional Indian sloping roofs and terracotta
Manglore tiles shingling with gables and vents allowing rising hot air to escape
curved wall to enclose more volume at lower material cost than straight wall.
 Baker was often seen rummaging through salvage heaps looking for suitable building
materials, door and window frames.
 Baker’s architectural method is of improvis ation.
Initial drawings have only an idealistic link to the final construction, with most of the
accommodations and design choices being made on- site by the architect himself.

COST EFFECTIVE TECHNIQUES:-

 FILLER SLAB:
20- 35% less materials
Decorative, Economical & Reduced self load
Almost maintenance free
25 – 30 % cost reduction

 JACK ARCH:
Energy saving and eco – friendly
Compressive roofing
Decorative & Highly Economical
Maintenance Free

 FILLER SLABS:
Filler slab employ replacing ‘un productive’ concrete
by a filler material which reduces the weight of the
slab and also the cost by reducing the amount of
concrete used. Since the weight of slab is thus
reduced less steel is required for reinforcement,
further reducing the cost.

 ARCHES:
The arch is significant because it provides a structure
which eliminates tensile stress in spanning an open
 space. All the forces are resolved into compressive
stresses. This is useful because several of the available
building material such as stone, cast iron and concrete
can strongly resist compression but are very weak
when tension, shear and torsional stress is applied
to them.

 DOMES:
A dome can be thought of as an arch which has been
rotated around its central vertical axis. Thus, dome
have a great deal of structural strength when properly
build & can span large open spaces without interior
supports.

 RAT TRAP BOND:

Rat trap bond brick masonry is an alternative
to normal English bond masonry wall by which
15% cost can be reduced without
compromising the quality, strength &
appearances.

 MASONRY ARCHES:
Traditional spanning sytem
Highly decorative & economical
Less energy requirement.

 MASONRY DOME:
Energy saving eco-friendly compressive
roof. Decorative & Highly Economical
for larges spans. Maintenance free.

 FUNICULAR SHELL:
Energy saving eco-friendly compressive
roof. Decorative & Economical.
Maintenance free.

Building house on terrace site : Building house on sloping site:

Use of rattrap bond : Use of Jaalis:

USE OF RATTRAP BOND : USE OF JAALIS:

Making use of following:

Brick arches Spanning by corbelled arches Overhanging roof

LAURIE BAKER’S WORKS:-

The Hamlet – Laurie Bakers Home..

 This is Baker’s home in Trivandrum.
 Unique house built on a plot of land along the slope
of a rocky hill, with limited access to water.
 Baker’s genius has created a wonderful home
for his family.
 Material used from unconventional sources.
 Family eats in kitchen.
 Electricity wiring is not concealed.
 Built In Furniture For The Hamlet
 Made Use of BRICK JALLIS.
 Effective way to minimize your electricity bills.
BUILDING MATERIAL: -
  RECYCLED Wood from traditional demolished building.
 All materials are used in their natural form, exposed brick work, mortar,
concrete shows the truthfulness of materials.
 Baker’s loves to material in their natural form.
 Surface treatment was done by Using Waste Materials.
 According to Baker, fans and lamps can be avoided through
appropriate planning.
 In India there is sunlight all round the year, which means that if water is stored
in the southern part of the house, hot water can be made available.
 Garbage can be recycled.
 Only a person like baker has the courage for this, because his motive is not
just to make money.

CENTER FOR DEVELOPMENT STUDIES - TRIVANDRUM

-1975:
 Leslie baker’s ‘masterpiece,’ the centre for development
studies in kerala, is a 10 acre campus at a cost of rs15 lakhs,
demonstrated the effectiveness of his plan.
 The institute includes a research institute.
 A graduate school dedicated to utilizing the study of
economics to help the poor.

MAIN FEATURES OF THIS BUILDING:-

 He designed the buildings at the centre to practically cool them.
 He renders jalis, a perforated wooden screen found in traditional
indian architecture, in brick;
 The open grillwork allows cool breezes to waft into the interior while filtering
harsh, direct sunlight.
 Some buildings include a series of small courtyards containing
shallow pools in the center, whose evaporation helps cool the air.
 Paying close attention to the existing site as he began to
design theproject, baker left as many coconut palm trees in place
as possible to cast cooling shade onto the campus.
 The computer centre at the centre for
development studies, thiruvananthapuram.
Here baker evolved an innovative system of curved double walls to save on
cost and to conserve the energy .
 In evaluating the campus for the centre, baker planned roads along the lower,
while footpaths were routed along naturally occurring elevated areas;
following the natural topography helps to limit erosion and despoilment of the
environment.
 Brickwalls were left unplastered and brick corbelling was used rather than more
expensive concrete lintels.
  With his mastery over his medium, baker creates a variety of textures and patterns by
simple manipulation of the way in which bricks are placed in the wall.
 The architecture of this academic complex was conceived as a demonstration of
economically responsible building practices.

LOYOLA CHAPEL AND AUDITORIUM SREEKARYAM, 1971:

 The Loyola complex contains a high school and a
post-graduate complex, both sharing a common chapel
and an auditorium.
 It was here that Bakers skills of cost-reduction met their
greatest challenge, as it required a seating capacity of
one thousand.
 In order to increase thelateral strength of the high brick
wall, without the introduction of anysteel or concrete,
Baker devised a wide cavity double-wall with c
ross-bracing brick.
 The total covered area of the chapel and auditorium
and the gallery is approximately 930 square meters
 The cost in 1970-71, including the furniture and
appurtenances, lighting and sanitation was kept within
the original gift sum of 1.75 lakh rupee

 The Centre of Science and Technology for Rural Development (COSTFORD), a

nonprofit,voluntary organisation of social workers, educators, architects, engineers,
scientists, technologists and others,strives to facilitate for empowering and enabling
the poor and weaker sections of society to improve their living conditions by
application of appropriate and people-friendly technologies and adopting
participatory, transparent, and gender-sensitive processes.
 The Centre of Science and Technology for Rural Development (COSTFORD) is
founded in 1985 by Mr. C. Achutha Menon, Kerala’s former Chief Minister; Dr. K.N.
Raj, Economist and Chairman of the Centre for Development Studies (CDS); Laurie
Baker, Master Architect; and Mr. T.R. Chandradutt, Social Activist.

COSTFORD’s mission is multi-faceted and includes:-

  promoting local level planning and development for empowering communities
 encouraging multi-disciplinary technical support teams
 supporting study of vernacular architecture along with research and development in
architectural design and construction technology
 serving as a conduit for transfer of technology appropriate for climate, culture, and
resources
 fostering human resource development at all levels with special attention to women
 publishing and distributing educational material related to its philosophy and
technologies
 conducting seminars, workshops, exhibitions, training programmes, and site visits.

COSTFORD is dedicated to changing the social, economic, and political position of

marginalised and disadvantaged groups in society. In the mid-1980s, COSTFORD focused
heavily on improvement of housing and made significant gains in providing alternative
philosophy and technologies for providing cost-effective, energy efficient, and more
appropriate housing for culture and climate for all income groups.

REFERENCES:-

1. www.wikipedia.com
2. HTTP://LAURIEBAKER.NET/INDEX.PHP/PHOTOS-AND-VIDEOS/PICTURES-OF-
BUILDINGS
3. HTTP://WWW.SLIDESHARE.NET/SSLELE456/LAURIE-BAKER
4. WWW.THEGREATBUILDINGS.COM

5. Class Notes