Dakshinachitra celebrates its museum’s 25th anniversary with an exhibition of works by its creator, Laurie Baker
The underlying principle of renowned architect Laurie Baker was to give everyone a place to live. “He never thought of creating an architectural marvel, making an extraordinary statement to the world with his architecture, or putting his signature on the building. He always believed that the building should be a reflection of the person living in it, not of architecture,” says Sandhya Kannan, curator of the exhibition Laurie Baker: A Tribute to the Architect of Dakshinachitra. The exhibition, which runs until January 30, is a tribute to Baker who designed and built the museum at Dakshin Chitra. Depicts minimalistic designs. Sandhya cites an example from Baker’s life where a man with a 15-member family wanted to build a house with a budget of Rs 10,000, which Baker did.
“We are trying to show different facets of Baker’s personality. Ideas like eco-friendly, sustainable and down to earth. In the exhibition, we will display artworks like Baker’s construction plans, letters, photographs and miniature books, which They wrote on brick work using clay. The surveys conducted by Dakshin Chitra on vernacular architecture in the country will also document the result,” she says.
Baker used mainly clay and bricks in his construction, something that is found from clay, and within a few miles of the construction site. He believed that there is no need to travel far and wide to buy materials for building a house. His architecture in Kerala is an example of this. He used materials such as jackfruit tree wood and laterite clay to build the house, which was later popularized by his student Benny Kuriakos. Kuriakose also contributed to the Kerala section of Dakshina Chitra.
Throwing light on the eco-friendly mindset of the baker, Sandhya says, “Why spend a fortune on non-eco-friendly building materials when you can spend very little on eco-friendly materials found in abundance in nature? Do it.” Baker also aimed to change the way people accessed housing through non-sustainable and impractical ways, including grand looking buildings and grand architecture.
The exhibition runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Varija Art Gallery of the Dakshin Chitra Sangrahalaya.
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