The architect Laurie Baker, known for low-cost and climate-responsive brick architecture, worked mainly in which Indian state?
- A.Gujarat
- B.Kerala
- C.Rajasthan
- D.West Bengal
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, Kerala. Baker, born in Britain and later an Indian citizen, settled in Kerala and built houses, hospitals and institutions there using exposed local brick, filler slabs and perforated jaali walls that reduced cost and kept interiors cool without machinery. Option A is wrong because Gujarat is associated with Ahmedabad as a centre of modern architecture, the home of CEPT University, the IIM campus by Louis Kahn and the works of Doshi. Option C is wrong because Rajasthan is linked in this topic to the Jawahar Kala Kendra in Jaipur by Charles Correa. Option D is wrong because West Bengal appears mainly through colonial Kolkata and the Victoria Memorial. Baker is quoted in examinations as the standard example of sustainable and cost-effective building in India. Filler slab roofing, in which waste tiles replace part of the concrete, is the technique most often named with him.
Read the full article: Modern Architecture and Architects of India: Notes
Practice Questions
View allThe city of Chandigarh was planned by which architect?
- A.Edwin Lutyens
- B.Le Corbusier
- C.Louis Kahn
- D.Charles Correa
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The Swiss-French architect gave Chandigarh its grid of self-contained sectors and designed the Capitol Complex with the Secretariat, the High Court, the Legislative Assembly and the Open Hand monument; the first scheme had been drawn by Albert Mayer with Matthew Nowicki before the work passed to him.
Read the full explanation →Who was the first Indian architect to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize?
- A.Charles Correa
- B.Raj Rewal
- C.Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi
- D.Achyut Kanvinde
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Doshi received the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2018, the first Indian to do so, for a career that began as an assistant to Le Corbusier and produced CEPT University and Sangath in Ahmedabad, the campus of IIM Bangalore and the Aranya low-cost housing at Indore; he was given the Royal…
Read the full explanation →The Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi, originally built as the Viceroy House, was designed by:
- A.Herbert Baker
- B.Edwin Lutyens
- C.George Wittet
- D.William Emerson
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Lutyens designed the Viceroy House on Raisina Hill, the building that became the Rashtrapati Bhavan after independence, and he also designed the memorial arch now known as India Gate.
Read the full explanation →The old Parliament House of India, a circular building completed in 1927, was designed by:
- A.Herbert Baker
- B.Bimal Patel
- C.Ganesh Bhikaji Deolalikar
- D.Joseph Allen Stein
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Baker designed the circular Council House, later the Sansad Bhavan, which was completed in 1927 and which housed Parliament for almost a century.
Read the full explanation →The Lotus Temple in New Delhi, a Bahai House of Worship shaped like a half-open lotus, was designed by:
- A.Fariborz Sahba
- B.Charles Correa
- C.Laurie Baker
- D.Raj Rewal
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The Iranian-Canadian architect designed the temple, completed in 1986, as a flower of twenty-seven marble petals arranged in groups of three, surrounded by nine pools, and it has become one of the most visited buildings in the country.
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