Over time, two distinct trends within the alternative

practice have emerged. While one group focuses on

process and broader questions of policy and
infrastructure, the other stream is concerned with
exploring alternative technologies and building methods,
attempting to make a critical contribution to India’s
broader architectural scene. Unhindered by the
obsession with speed that characterizes global practices
and the impatience of capital, they can afford the luxury
of experimentation, often to leverage the capital over to
more efficient means and application. Examples of this
approach are Baker’s early and seminal works in Kerala,
where he reinvented methods of construction that
proved more economical (rat trap bond walls, filler slab
roofing, exposed brickwork, the use of natural stabilizers
such as lime instead of cement) to save on costs, are
emblematic of this approach. This not only created a new
aesthetic for affordable housing and building
construction, but also shaped (on its own terms) a
parallel to the exposed brick and concrete aesthetics of
the moderns. Bakers’ architectural skills and his projects
demonstrating these techniques are evident in the
several houses and institutions he built in Kerala. For
example, in Abu Abraham’s house in
Thiruvananthapuram, baker created a pattern from his
new bonding techniques as a new aesthetic as exposed
brickwork.

The common thread among these efforts us that they are

all based on community participation and in resulting
architecture and urban design from formal production
processes squarely into the fabric of the lived
experiences of all their users. This form of practice also
acts as an important counterpoint to the practical driven
corporate pattern. The emphasis is on the intimacy of the
scale, a direct involvement with the building and an
active preoccupation with the political and civic issues
that impinge on architecture. This model of practice is
viewed with great suspicion by mainstream practitioners-
perhaps because it challenges the more orthodox
patterns and protocols of professional practice? Indeed
these experiments are camped on the margins of
conventional practice. By choosing to operate at the
edges of capital’s dominant structure, these alternative
practitioners have made explicit their moral choices.

He invented new techniques for making walls and roofs,

economizing the materials used while achieving a visual
vibrancy. His approach was characterized by flexibility in
design intentions and open endedness, whereby the final
product was defined by the construction process. This
facilitated the easy incorporation of various materials,
both new and recycled. As very little was predetermined,
there was led pressure on the end product and it also
allowed craftspeople to engage in decision making
process of the building. Non-governmental organizations
and cultural institutions were the chief patrons of his
services.
Bakers work energized this alternative way of building
and by the late 2970s and early 1980s, his influence was
more than evident throughout India, gaining momentum
with the support of the popular national press.

The doors and windows embody the change in materials

and technology that has occurred over the years- the
earlier structures being of wood and fish tile, the more
recent ones of cement and Mangalore tile. In a market
situation over which baker has little control, adaptation
to new materials has become a natural recourse.
Even the journey to baker’s house through the city is a
symbolic return to the origins, a transformation to
another architectural age; it takes the visitor from the
denser concrete center of the Trivandrum, through the
freshness and shade of the suburbs, to the relatively
unspoilt outskirts of Nalachira. The house is not visible
from the road, and the walk up towards it is one of
discovery and accidental encounters- am entrance gate,
a steeper gradient along a workshop to a free standing
door, a curved path along the circular nicer and the final
flight of steps leading the plinth of the main house. The
house itself, open but benign, is oriented towards the
countryside- away from the city- and so it renews its links
to its past, to its Kerala ancestry. The visitor hardly ever
notices the extent of the constructions, for the house has
been effectively fragmented to follow the contours, so
that the rooms rise with the land. Bits of the house-
portico, study, bedroom, dining and kitchen- come
together under the dense foliage of tropical trees and
shrubs. Terracotta roofs and red brick walls, stained by
the monsoons, blend quietly into the forest background.
In the relatively affluent Trivandrum the Bakers continue
to live their lives just as they had in the frugal sections of
Pithorgarh in the Himalayas. Only the setting has
changed. A different climate, a strikingly different terrain
and vegetation, and a more urbane clientele have failed
to alter the Bakers’ simple and plain lifestyle.
A subdued delicacy, even a kind of domestic elegance, is
attained as the interiors and furnishing are designed on
the basis of the desired domestic activity; furniture and
achiness are accommodated or intimately scaled to
reflect their order in the housekeeping. That cooking,
eating, washing are shared family activities of the kitchen
are suggested in the central placement of stoves, tables
and sink.
Rooms do not follow the conventional classification of a
house. The family eats in the kitchen under a ceiling hung
with pots and pans. These create a useful decoration for
the space, while taking care of the kitchen’s storage
needs. A formal dining room does not exist.