Beginnings: Laurence W.Baker, well known as Laurie Baker, was born in Burmingham, England on 2nd March 1917, as the youngest child with two elder sisters and a brother. Father - Charles Fredrick Baker, Mother- Milly Baker. Early education at - King Edwards Grammar School. Higher Education: When he was seventeen, he went on a cycling tour of Europe with friends. Fascinated by the unfolding vistas of nature, landscape, cities, the different life patterns of people and the differences in the houses from place to place, that tour proved to be a turning point in his life. Back from tour, he thought of a career in architecture and soon after he joined the Birmingham School of Architecture. His Career and Activities: Prior to the period of completion of his professional apprenticeship, the Second World War broke out. During the war, Baker enlisted in the Friends Ambulance Unit and was sent to China for service as part of a surgical unit, in the war between China and Japan. He then went to Burma, and in the midst of war, was involved in tending to the injured victims. Later he worked with the people, especially those suffering from leprosy. Owing to his deep involvement in work and the hardships that followed, his health suffered and he was sent back to England for recuperation. On his way back, while waiting for a ship at Bombay, he had a chance encounter with Mahatma Gandhi, whose philosophy had a major influence in his work. While in England, hearing of a worldwide organization dealing with the treatment and rehabilitation of leprosy people in India, he joins them as an architect. That was way back in 1945, when he came to India, to convert old refugee centres into actual treatment hospitals, with a knowledge of leprosy and its treatment, apart from his planning and building experience. At one of these hospitals in Uttar Pradesh, Baker stayed with one Mr.Chandy and family, whose sister Elizabeth Jacob, had been working as a doctor in a hospital in Hyderabad. They got married in 1948. The Bakers remained in Pithoragarh for the next sixteen years. Living there, in a hilly terrain in the most adverse climatic conditions, amidst the poor, he understood the importance of Himalayan domestic architecture, which to him was a perfect example of vernacular architecture. They left Pithoragarh in 1963 and moved to a similar hilly area in central Kerala, a remote village-Vagamon, inhabited by tribal people and Tamil migrants. There they built schools and leprosy treatment centres and worked for the people. In 1965, they moved to Trivandrum and got involved in the leprosy work and also built homes and institutions for a wider clientele. Today, over a thousand families in the district, live in Baker model houses and the evolution of his style can be traced through his work in and around the city.                Copyright © 2000 Guildsoft India Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved