This British-born Indian architect is synonymous with sustainable architecture and has even been called “Gandhi of Architecture.” Laurie Baker came to India in 1945 and made Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, his home. He built everything from institutions to homes and to him low-cost, good quality and sustainable building materials were key.
Today, his grandson Vineet Radhakrishnan is making a biopic on him titled Uncommon Sense: The Life and Architecture of Laurie Baker. Talking to dna about his grandfather and the feature him he’s working on, Radhakrishnan gives us an insight into who Laurie Baker really was.
What was the inspiration behind the feature film on your grandfather Laurie Baker?
I feel that today, more than ever before, his philosophy of simplifying the way we design and live, of building sensibly and within our means, and of not wasting things or harming the environment we live in, is a message that is very relevant. Over the years I have witnessed the positive impact his work and message has had on people who he came into contact with and then, consequently, on their families and friends. He showed us a way to build relatively inexpensive yet durable and equally importantly beautiful buildings through clever design and an innovative use of Indian materials. Of course, his life in China, then in the Himalayas and the hills of Kerala, with my grandmother, is a story worth telling in its own right.
Vineet Radhakrishnan
How difficult was it for you to condense his life story and architectural achievements into this feature film?
One thing I realised when I started to make this film was that Laurie Baker meant different things to different people. Some saw him as a pathbreaking designer and innovator, others appreciated his environmental and social concern, some his rebellious questioning of established construction methods and advocacy of our indigenous crafts, building methods and culture, yet others were drawn to the personal story of this Englishman who ultimately became more Indian in many ways than many of us. So the biggest challenge was to try and combine and balance all these different aspects into a single (hopefully) cohesive storyline.
What do you think is the essence of Laurie Baker, the man?
My understanding of him and of my grandmother is that they both just wanted to help people. She did this through her medical work in the Himalayas and, later, in Kerala. His special skill to help people was through building. For every Indian to have a roof over his or her head was his biggest goal. He also wanted to leave behind a proof of concept through the sheer diversity of his life work that his design philosophy could be adapted to the small or large, a house or an institutional building, a film studio or a low-cost cathedral, an urban slum redevelopment or a tribal disaster rehabilitation project.
Any philosophy of his that you have imbibed?
I learnt from him to not be too concerned about what the world expects you to do and just go ahead and do what you feel you must do.
