Any visitor to Kerala is sure to notice quaint brick red homes and dancing structures that swirl and twirl in and out of the surrounding greenery, so much so that they seem to be one with Nature. Keralites have long considered the maker of these symphonies in brick as one of their very own.

In a true tribute to Laurie Baker - the poor man’s builder and the father of green architecture in India - his grandson has come out with a documentary ‘Uncommon Sense: The Life and Architecture of Laurie Baker’.

“The biggest thing my grandfather showed me through his life was not to care about what people have to say, not to care about detractors, to take risks in life, be brave and go ahead and do what you believe in,” says Vineet Radhakrishnan, Baker’s grandson who directed the docu.

Even though Baker passed away in 2007 at the ripe old  age of 90, he left behind a lasting legacy that continues to attract the masses on the lookout for homesteads or  buildings in tune with Nature. “The joy that came of  knowing him was to see that there was no connection  between money and beauty,” observes noted writer Arundhati Roy in the docu. Baker’s low-cost buildings were more beautiful and continue to be so than any in the vicinity, she adds.

His reputed works in Kerala include Houses for the Thiruvananthapuram  Archbishop, Muttom Tourist Resort, Loyola Buildings at Sreekaryam, Centre for Development Studies at Ulloor, St John’s Cathedral Tiruvalla, Nalanda State Institute of Languages, Chitralekha Film Studio, Mary Roy’s Pallikoodam in Kottayam, Poonthura Fishing Village, Vellanadu Mitraniketan, Krishi Vignyan Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, Indian Coffee House, Chengalchoola Slum Dwelling Units, to name just a few. A firm believer in the ‘No Waste’ policy, Baker made use of whatever raw material was readily available on site to create a building that stood in  harmony with its environment.  He proved to be more Indian than many natives themselves, with his absolute adherence to Indianness in both his designs  and construction.