Laurie Baker

Lawrence Wilfred "Laurie" Baker (2 March 1917 – 1 April 2007) was a British-born Indian architect, renowned for his initiatives in cost-effective energy-efficient architecture and designs that maximized space, ventilation and light and maintained an uncluttered yet striking aesthetic sensibility.

Influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and his own experiences in the remote Himalayas, he promoted the revival of regional building practices and use of local materials; and combined this with a design philosophy that emphasized a responsible and prudent use of resources and energy.

Baker studied architecture at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, Birmingham, and graduated in 1937, aged 20, in a period of political unrest in Europe.

During the Second World War, as a conscientious objector, he served in the Friends Ambulance Unit.

After a short spell on the south coast of England and mostly looking after naval casualties he was sent to China as a trained anesthetist with a surgical team, mainly to cope with civilian casualties in the war between China and Japan.

However, after a year or two of this war area activity, he found himself having to deal with derelict civilians suffering from Hansen's disease — the medical term for leprosy.

He was seconded to a hospital formerly run by an order of German sisters who were all interned by the Chinese as enemy aliens.

The War took its toll on Baker, and he was ordered back in 1943 to England to recuperate.

But fate took a hand in delaying his departure by about three months as he waited for a boat in Bombay.

During this time he stayed with a Quaker friend, who also happened to be a good friend of the Mahatma.

Baker attended many of Gandhiji's talks and prayer-meetings — which eventually led to a more-than-casual friendship between them.

This was also the time of the Gandhi-Jinnah talks and the height of the 'Quit India' movement.

So though he felt the need to return to India, to settle and work here, Baker was initially discouraged by the nationwide animosity to the Raj and to all Westerners.

But the Mahatma reassured him that though the Raj must quit, concerned individuals would always find a welcome place to work with Indians.

In fact, Gandhiji showed great interest in the leprosy work in China, and the lives of the ordinary people there.

"It was also from the influence of Mahatma Gandhi I learnt that the real people you should be building for, and who are in need, are the 'ordinary' people — those living in villages and in the congested areas of our cities."

Gandhi's idea was that it should be possible to build a home with materials found within a five-mile radius of a site.

This was to have a great influence in his later life.

He moved to India in 1945 in part as an architect associated with a leprosy mission and continued to live and work in India for over 50 years.

His initial commitment to India in 1945 had him working as an architect for the World Leprosy Mission, an international and inter-denominational organisation dedicated to the care of those suffering from leprosy.

The organisation wanted a builder-architect-engineer.

As new medicines for the treatment of the disease were becoming more prevalent, Baker's responsibilities were focused on converting or replacing asylums once used to house the ostracised sufferers of the disease (called lepers) into treatment hospitals.

Moving to India in 1945, Baker began to work on leprosy centre buildings across the country, basing himself out of Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh.

Baker quickly found the missionary lifestyle - ostentatious bungalows, socialite gatherings, and the plethora of servants waiting hand and foot - too luxurious and not in line with his values and instead decided to stay with the Indian Doctor P.J. Chandy and his family.

The sister of his host, Elizabeth Jacob (Baker called her "Kuni"), worked as a doctor in Hyderabad with the same leprosy organisation.

The two met when Elizabeth came to Faizabad to perform an operation on her brother and to take care of the hospital duties whilst he recuperated.

Baker and Jacob found themselves sharing common beliefs and decided to marry.

However, as there was considerable resistance from both their families, they decided to wait.

He was a pioneer of sustainable architecture as well as organic architecture, incorporating in his designs even in the late 1960s, concepts such as rain-water harvesting, minimizing usage of energy-inefficient building materials, minimizing damage to the building site and seamlessly merging with the surroundings.

Due to his social and humanitarian efforts to bring architecture and design to the common man, his honest use of materials, his belief in simplicity in design and in life, and his staunch Quaker belief in non-violence, he has been called the "Gandhi of architecture".

In 1981, the Royal University of the Netherlands conferred an honour (the previous recipient of this honour, in 1980, was Hassan Fathy of Egypt) upon him for outstanding work in a Third World country.

In 1983 he was conferred with an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) at Buckingham Palace.

In 1988, he was granted Indian citizenship, the only honour he actively pursued in his life.

Baker was born into a staunch Methodist family, the youngest son of Birmingham Gas Department's chief accountant, Charles Frederick Baker and Millie Baker.

His early schooling was at King Edwards Grammar School.

His elder brothers, Leonard and Norman studied law, and he had a sister, Edna who was the oldest of them all.

In his teens Baker began to question what religion meant to him and decided to become a Quaker, since it was closer to what he believed in.

He became an Indian citizen in 1989 and resided in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Kerala from 1969 and served as the Director of COSTFORD (Centre of Science and Technology for Rural Development), an organisation to promote low-cost housing.

In 1990, the Government of India awarded him the Padma Shri for his meritorious service in the field of architecture.

In 1992, he was awarded the Roll of Honour by the United Nations.