Date: 02 May 07
Author: Simon Unwin
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I’ve come to treasure moments when I’m out of my ordinary zone of comfort. Recently, I’ve had a few of these. For example, I’m not sure if I’ve felt more out of my comfort zone than when I found myself inside a Hindu temple in Thiruvananthapuram, minus my shirt, glowing pale amongst the dark mysteries and clouds of incense. Or when, a week or so later, I stood up to talk to the assembled heavyweight architectural theorists of the Bartlett School of Architecture in London (glowing pale amongst the dark mysteries and clouds of incense) about the rudimentary architecture of the little places we make on the beach when we spend a day by the sea, or when we light campfires in the woods.
Thiruvananthapuram (aka Trivandrum) is the capital of the region of Kerala, which stretches from the southernmost tip of India up the western coast, occupying a strip of land between the Arabian Ocean and the Western Ghat mountains that are verdant with coconut palms and rubber trees.
Though many architects in Kerala worry about issues of ‘identity’ and aspire to agendas implied by Western architectural magazines, more immediate challenges are presented by the climate and the need for ingenuity in using the resources readily available for building. This is a place where women sit under coconut leaf shades, breaking rocks into aggregate for concrete. The coconut trees themselves provide thatch and coir for ropes and mats. Walls are built of mud (mixed with cow dung) or of laterite. Glass is largely an irrelevance (that almost always results in the need for air conditioning), though this does not stop it being seen as a symbol of wealth and progress.
One architect who recognised the immediate challenges of the area was Laurie Baker, who turned ninety when I was in India. Born in Birmingham, and having subsequently lived in China and the Himalaya, Baker moved to Trivandrum in 1970 when he was in his fifties. He has since devoted himself to producing architecture appropriate to the region using a limited palette, dominated by open brickwork walls and concrete roofs, and as exemplified in the campus he designed for the Centre for Development Studies in Trivandrum. Baker’s own dwelling, ‘The Hamlet’, owes some debt to the Arts and Crafts architecture of his English roots and is more like a fantastic hillside village than a house. The architect’s influential work on low-cost housing also continues through COSTFORD (The Centre of Science and Technology for Rural Development), the organisation that he founded and which is based in a part of The Hamlet.
Baker’s work combines sensitivity to site, climate, culture, available skills and materials…all leavened by a sense of humour. This timeless approach has produced a body of work of sophistication and sociable charm. But perhaps his greatest legacy will be the fact that he has shown younger architects a way forward that neither depends on aping Western vanities nor sham imitation of traditional forms. One such exponent of Baker’s approach is Liza Raju Subhadra, whose Ramesh House (2003, illustration), with its rooms spiralling around a well-ventilated small courtyard and mango tree, is an exquisite delight.
Upon my arrival in India, as the plane came in to land, the sparse lights of Trivandrum seemed to mirror the stars in the night sky. As I left, the great festival of Pongala, where thousands of women cook ritual meals on small fires across the city and elephants lead processions down the streets, was just concluding. In-between, amongst many other things, I visited Maharajah’s palaces and Brahmin villages, then crossed backwaters and saw some beautiful vernacular houses which exhibited that ‘quality without a name’. I explored the woods of the foothills of the Western Ghats, where people live by ancient tradition in fine examples of ‘rudimentary architecture in the landscape’ (one person that I met there was eighteen years older than Laurie Baker). I also took off my shirt to enjoy the privilege of being allowed into a Hindu temple devoted to Siva, the angry god of destruction. On emerging, the skies darkened; there was a flash of lightning and then a clap of thunder.
With thanks to: Professor T.L. Shaji of Trivandrum School of Architecture, who invited me to contribute to a workshop on Methodologies for Teaching Architectural Design; Liza R.S. for guiding me through my first experience of India and taking me to see her Ramesh House; everyone else who was so kind and hospitable during my stay; and Siva for putting me back in my place.
In memory of Laurie Baker, who died at his home in Trivandrum on April 1st 2007.
