Kerala society is indebted to Laurie Baker who introduced us to a style of architecture that is suitable to the State’s geography and weather conditions, district panchayat president V.K. Madhu said.
He was addressing the gathering after inaugurating the valedictory function of an international seminar on sustainable and cost-effective architecture and housing, organised as part of the centenary celebrations of architect Laurie Baker.
“Kerala’s traditional architecture is beautiful and suitable to our place. But the building methods that came after that did not have any flavour of this traditional architecture. It was at this juncture, when we were losing our touch with traditional architecture, that Baker came into the field with his own unique style of architecture. Malayalis welcomed the change,” he said.
Mr. Madhu said Baker had put forward an alternative to contemporary ideas of development and progress, which were based on the mindless construction of skyscrapers.
A book ‘Legacy of Laurie Baker’, which showcases some of Baker’s key projects, was released during the function. There were six thematic discussions at the three-day seminar. These touched upon the subjects of sustainability, urban housing, habitat design for sustainability, challenges in the practice of sustainable building in developing countries, challenges of rural housing and cities of the future.
The seminar observed that the education system should emphasise Baker’s approaches and techniques as part of mainstream engineering education and not as something that was exotic or optional, because the new revelations about climate change and global warming make Baker’s emphasis on less energy materials and techniques crucial to sustainability. Houses should be not only liveable, loveable and affordable, but also accessible. This means particular attention should be paid to the needs of differently abled persons. This was particularly important in the case of public buildings and equipment, observed the seminar.
