Echoes Of Kerala Architects

The voice of Indian as well as Kerala architecture hold its own importance in architecture in our daily life, The use of vastu is a booming trend between elite builders. Here we are exposing the life of  some of the legends in architecture who have Kerala roots.

Laurie Baker

Indian Coffee House,Trivandrum

Laurie Baker : Laurence Wilfred "Laurie" Baker (2 March 1917 – 1 April 2007) was a British-born Indian architect, renowned for his initiatives in cost-effective energy-efficient architecture and for his unique space utilization and simple but aesthetic sensibility. Influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, he sought to incorporate simple designs with local materials and achieved fame with his approach to sustainable architecture as well as in organic architecture. He has been called the "Gandhi of architecture".

He moved to India in 1945 in part as an architect associated with a leprosy mission and continued to live and work in India for over 50 years. He became an Indian citizen in 1989 and resided in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Kerala from 1963 and founded COSTFORD (Centre of Science and Technology for Rural Development),Throughout his practice, Baker became well known for designing and building low cost, high quality, beautiful homes, with a great portion of his work suited to or built for lower-middle to lower class clients.

 His buildings tend to emphasize prolific - at times virtuosic - masonry construction, instilling privacy and evoking history with brick jali walls, a perforated brick screen which invites a natural air flow to cool the buildings' interior, in addition to creating intricate patterns of light and shadow. Another significant Baker feature is irregular, pyramid-like structures on roofs, with one side left open and tilting into the wind. Baker's designs invariably have traditional Indian sloping roofs and terracotta Mangalore tile shingling with gables and vents allowing rising hot air to escape. Curved walls enter Baker's architectural vocabulary as a means to enclose more volume at lower material cost than straight walls, and for Laurie, "building [became] more fun with the circle." A testament to his frugality, Baker was often seen rummaging through salvage heaps looking for suitable building materials, door and window frames, sometimes hitting a stroke of luck as evidenced by the intricately carved entry to the Chitralekha Film Studio (Aakulam, Trivandrum, 1974–76): a capricious architectural element found in a junk heap.

Eugene Pandala

Eugene Pandala: Eugene Pandala studied for a Masters in Urban Design at the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. He had his Fellowship in Heritage Conservation at University of York and at Fort Brockhurst (English Heritage Training Centre) in the U.K. He was the founding head of the department of Architecture at the Architecture School in Quilon where he spent educating and researching on traditional building technologies of India.

Pandala while studying at Delhi School of Planning and Architecture met the legendary architect Hassan Fathy, and was inspired to build with mud. As a nature lover, and cultural heritage conservation activist, he designs buildings with natural materials such as cob or wattle and daub, preferring interesting organic forms. Pandala built his first mud house in Kollam in 1996,comprising 2,500 sq. ft. of building, bringing him to the public's attention.

Mud House

His unique Architecture style paved way to many awards, and recognition. In 2011, Lalith Kala Academy awarded him the first Laurie Baker award .(The Hindu The Sunday, Jan 30,2011). The Designer of the year Award given by Inside Outside design magazine in 2007 (Kerala artist retreat bags best eco-friendly design award Business Standard Sunday, Mar 25, 2012) was for eco friendly design. His heritage Conservation project in East Fort Trivandrum was chosen for a commendation award by Inside Outside magazine in 2004. In 1999 for one of his residential building built with mud "Bodhi", Pandala was given, a Commendation award, by J.K. Foundations, Architect of the year award.

Fort Cochin Heritage conservation project, Trivandrum East Fort Conservation projects, is often cited as good examples of Kerala heritage conservation initiatives. This was led by Eugene Pandala’s conservation team, enabling the State Government to win the PATTA award. Sustainable architecture/Green buildings is a field where Pandala has excelled. His Tsunami rehabilitation projects, and buildings for hospitality industries receives wide acclaim due to its interwoven complicity with nature.

Kerala's elite builders like NeST Infratech, encompass low cost ideas which makes the design more exquisite , following the path of these legends of architecture.

How To Make Your Home Cool During Summer Season?

Gone are the days when weather forecast made on television were mostly accurate. Now we can’t solely depend on such predictions as day by day our weather is getting unpredictable. The planet earth is getting heated up in such a way that we can now feel the sun even inside our homes.The worst part is that you can’t always switch on the air conditioners 24x7 due to the rocketing electricity charges.

Here are a few tips that help you to get rid of the furnace-like feeling inside your home

• First of all declutter your home by taking off all the old furniture and newspapers. When you free some space, then itself you can feel a great difference in the heat. If you have heavy,dark coloured synthetic drapes at your home, then replace it with attractive and light coloured sheer curtains. Pick some refreshing colours like lime green, orange or aqua blue to bring in a cool,soothing effect inside your home.

• Add on some greenery to your homes by keeping few potted plants. Plants not only adds to the aesthetic appeal, but also give a freshness to your living spaces. You can either keep fresh flowers in vases or place them in a bowl full of water. It will give a cool, refreshing feel during summer.

• If it's too hot inside your home, hang a piece of long wet cloth near your window. The cool air from the water will evaporate and blow towards you when you leave your window open. Keep your drinking water in an earthen pot, you will be able to drink naturally cooled water all the time, not only that it will also keep your room cool.

• Reduce the usage of lights at your home as they tend to heat up your rooms. Use dim light especially fluorescent lamps as they provide a lighting effect that is much cooler than other ordinary lamps. Apart from that, it also consumes less electricity.Though fluorescent lamps are quite expensive, it’s better for your homes.

• Switch off all the electrical appliances at your home when not in use. Don't leave your doors closed always. It's good to keep the doors open for sometime to get some breeze inside your home. Do not keep any heat generating appliances like television,lamps near the air conditioner. If you do so, then it makes the room more warm.

• Avoid cooking during noon hours as most of the home appliances generate more heat during that time. In case if you have to cook during that period, then use a fan that directs the heat outside the window.

• Stick to fans rather than air conditioners. Before you switch on the ac, it's better to put on the fan as it allows your room to cool down. Open your windows in the night when it’s coolest.

• It's good to use white colour or light shades for your ceilings as it makes your room cool.

• Avoid landscaping with rock or cement on the south-west sides of your home as it radiates more heat towards your home.

Green Building

A Green building is one which uses less water, optimizes energy efficiency, conserves natural resources, generates less waste and provides healthier spaces for occupants, as compared to a conventional building. Transformation of building homes from the old ways to eco-friendly ways is taking place a slow and steady pace. 

With the increase in population and lack of living spaces along with the increasing pollution rate has left humans with no other choices than to shift to a place which is far away or to build homes in a eco-friendly way. With the increase in land rates people are switching their minds from villas and bungalows to flats and apartments. There can be a lot of other reasons to choose flats and apartments as they provide a lot of facilities like swimming pool, security, gyms and many other facilities, getting which is more difficult in villas and bungalows. Social get together in apartments and flats is much more easier than in a private villa. So need for a eco-friendly building becomes more essential. 

A building is assessed based on its predicted performance over its entire life cycle. The stages identified for evaluation are:

Pre-construction: Intra- and inter-site issues like proximity to public transport, type of soil, kind of land, location, flora and fauna before construction activity starts, natural landscape and features.

Planning and construction: Issues of resource conservation and reduction in resource demand, resource utilization efficiency and recovery, reuse, and provisions for occupant health and well-being. Prime resources considered are land, water, energy, air and green cover.

Operation and maintenance: Of building systems and processes, monitoring and recording of energy consumption, occupants' health and well-being and issues that affect the global and local environment. The builders concentrate on the following things before building such homes.

1. Energy saving

2. Water efficiency

3. CO2 emissions reduction

4. Indoor environmental quality

5. Preservation of resources

6. Sensitivity to the impact of development on natural resources

Nowadays a lot of builders are emerging and among them is NeST Infratech. They recently finished their project on "KERALA'S FIRST GREEN TOWNSHIP" which focuses on building homes surrounded with eco-friendly elements, for example Coconut trees. This novel township comprises of architectural styles that includes Contemporary as well as Traditional Nalukettu Villas and Luxurious Apartments, ranging from 29 lakhs, The World sprawls over an area of 25 acres in the ever bracing surroundings of Alwaye.