Laurie Baker laid to rest

Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 2 (UNI) The body of veteran architect and pioneer of the low-cost housing technology Laurie Baker was today laid to rest at the Christ Church at Palayam in the city with full state honours.

People from various walks of life paid their last respects before the body was laid to rest.

The mortal remains were placed at the VJT Hall for the public to pay their last respects and was later taken to the Christ church Cemetery for the burial.

Mr Baker was 90. He had been suffering from age-related illness for the past many days.

Born in Birmingham, England, on March 2, 1917, he came to India in 1945 as part of missionary work and since then, lived and worked here and obtained Indian Citizenship in 1989.

He became a part of Kerala and Thiruvananthapuram from 1970.

A pioneer of cost effective architecture movement in India, Baker had become well known for designing and building near-impossibly low cost, high quality homes with a great portion of his work suited to or built for lower-middle to lower class clients.

Founder of the Centre for Science and Technology for Rural Development (Costford), Baker was the recipient of many awards and recognitions, including the Padmasree (1990), the U N Habitat Award (1992) and the International Union of Architects Award (1993).

He was a great architect of all times who proved that it was not impossible to build houses with low budgets on land written off by everyone.

Effectively combining traditional techniques with indigenous innovations, he managed to bring down the cost of construction by half.

UNI