Centre for Development Studies Case Study: Plan, Brick and Jaali (Laurie Baker)

The Centre for Development Studies (CDS) in Ulloor, Thiruvananthapuram, is a social science research institute whose 10-acre campus was designed and built by Laurie Baker in the early 1970s. It is a group of brick buildings on a sloping, wooded site: a main block on the high ground, a circular library tower, a computer centre wrapped in a curving jaali screen, an auditorium with a filler slab ceiling, hostels, a guest house and staff housing. This case study sets out the brief, the plan, the structure and materials, how the buildings handle a warm, humid climate, and what is documented and what is not.

Centre for Development Studies campus: the facts

Architect and builder: Laurie Baker. CDS says Baker "conceived and designed the campus and buildings". We found no published credit for a separate engineer.

Client: the Centre for Development Studies, set up on 19 October 1970 by the economist K. N. Raj at the request of Kerala's Chief Minister C. Achutha Menon. It is funded mainly by the Government of Kerala and affiliated to the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR).

Location: Prasanth Nagar, Medical College P.O., Ulloor, Thiruvananthapuram 695011, Kerala.

Dates: 1971 in the list of works on Baker's official site; "early 1970s" for the main library tower per CDS, and for the buildings per an IANS report of 2007. A second library block followed in the late 2000s.

Type and size: research and teaching campus with a library, teaching rooms, a computer centre, an auditorium, an open-air theatre, five hostels, a guest house, a cafeteria and staff quarters, on about 10 acres per CDS.

Status: in use by CDS. It is a working institute, not a museum (see Visiting).

About the facts below: CDS's own campus pages describe each building, and they are our main source. Construction dates for individual buildings, floor areas and costs in rupees are not published there or in any source we could open, so this post gives none. Where sources disagree (the library's storeys, whether the Computer Centre was air-conditioned), both versions are given with their source. The diagrams are MOA schematics drawn from written descriptions, not copies of Baker's drawings.

If you are documenting CDS for a studio or thesis, our field checklist for architecture case studies sets out what to record on site.

The brief: economists asked to prove their ideas in brick

The CDS history page says the institute was set up as an autonomous social science research institute on 19 October 1970, after Chief Minister C. Achutha Menon persuaded K. N. Raj to lead it. Raj, it says, remained "the driving force" behind its academic work for over two decades. The same page says CDS was "fortunate to have Laurie Baker" to design its campus and buildings "in a distinctive but cost-effective manner".

Baker had moved to Trivandrum in 1969, according to the life page on his official site. In a passage given there in his own words, he recalls that the Chief Minister launched CDS by challenging its economists to prove their theories through the way they built and ran their institution. A review of a later book on the campus by Krishnakumar S. in American Bazaar (January 2015) credits the result to political support from Achutha Menon, institutional support from Raj, and Baker's design.

Who was Laurie Baker

Baker was born to a Quaker family in Birmingham and returned to India in 1945, according to David Sokol's obituary in Architectural Record (24 April 2007). It says he co-founded COSTFORD in 1985 and died at his home in Thiruvananthapuram in April 2007, aged 90.

Centre for Development Studies location and site

CDS sits in a residential area in the north-west of Thiruvananthapuram called Prasanthnagar, according to its About the Campus page, which gives the campus as 10 acres (it also says 40,000 m², a rounded figure). Two things about the land shaped the design:

The slope. Adam Hochschild, writing in Mother Jones (July/August 2000), describes the campus as stretching across a "heavily wooded hillside". The ArchEyes team's 2024 study says the buildings follow the contours of the site instead of levelling it. CDS says the Main Block's core sits at "the highest as well as the focal point of the site".
The trees. Hochschild reports that Baker placed the buildings so he would have to cut down as few trees as possible.

Online notes saying CDS stands on an old quarry seem to describe a different site, the Laurie Baker Centre for Habitat Studies, so we leave that out.

Centre for Development Studies architecture: concept and design ideas

Baker did not publish a design statement for CDS that we could find. What the sources show is a set of separate buildings, each with its own form, joined by paths across the slope. Shruti Omprakash in Arts Illustrated (July 2026) describes paths winding through the site, each leading to a structure with its own character, and argues that the campus mattered for the range of ideas it tested across buildings of different uses and sizes, not for its size or budget.

Three ideas recur across the sources:

Brick as the finish. Walls are left as bare brick. ArchEyes says Baker saw plaster as a cost that hid the brick.
Walls that breathe. Jaali (perforated brick) walls let air and filtered light through. Hochschild noticed the coolness of the breeze through the jaalis that fill many outside walls.
Openness. Hochschild writes that anyone can walk up the steps and through the wide entrance of the main building at any hour, and that "you can't lock the front door because there isn't one."

Nisar Khan's review in The Book Review (February 2015) adds that Baker guided masons on site with hand-drawn sketches.

Centre for Development Studies Laurie Baker plan and zoning

CDS's page on the Main Block gives the clearest account of the plan. The Main Block was the first building put up on the campus. Its core sits on the high point. From the entrance foyer:

the teaching block lies to the left
the director's office lies to the right, overlooking a water body
a flight of steps leads up to the library block

The other buildings, as CDS's campus pages list them:

Computer Centre: south-west of the Main Block.
Baker Auditorium: about 150 seats, with two classrooms on the first floor at the back.
Kaldor: an open-air theatre for 100 people, named after the economist Nicholas Kaldor, with two green rooms behind the stage.
Guest house: 14 rooms, with an 80-seat cafeteria next to it.
Hostels: five, with 90 rooms in all. CDS does not say which are Baker's.
Staff and faculty quarters.

CDS's pages for the Administration Building, the Computer Centre and Kaldor show Baker's plans and elevations, credited to the book Masterpiece of a Master Architect: Centre for Development Studies by Jayesh S. Pillai, published by COSTFORD and the Laurie Baker Centre for Habitat Studies. Khan's review lists the book at 130 pages, with plans, sections, elevations, site plans showing how the campus grew, and a "Gallery of Jalis". The American Bazaar review gives its year as 2014; The Book Review gives 2015. See those pages or the book for the real drawings.

Relationship diagram of the CDS Main Block: an entrance foyer at the centre on the highest ground, with the teaching block to its left, the director's office to its right overlooking a water body, a flight of steps up to the circular library tower and a later block beside it, and the Computer Centre to the south-west; a side panel lists the auditorium, open-air theatre, guest house, hostels and staff quarters — The Main Block as CDS describes it: an open foyer on the high point, teaching on one side, the director on the other, and steps up to the library tower. Diagram: MOA

Centre for Development Studies library: the tower

The K. N. Raj Library is the tallest building on the campus. The library page calls it a "seven storied circular tower" completed in the early 1970s. An IANS report in The Tribune (8 April 2007) calls it an "eight-storied library building". We could not settle the difference, and no source explains it.

In the late 2000s a second block was added beside it, which CDS describes as "a replica of the old tower in design" with four floors and an attic floor. CDS credits both towers to Baker. Baker died in April 2007, so the later block was either designed before his death or built to his design afterwards; the sources do not say which.

Section and structure

CDS describes three structural ideas building by building, and these are the ones this post can stand behind.

The Computer Centre's double wall

The Computer Centre page describes a building with two walls:

an outer wall of jaali, half a brick thick, that "winds around in repeating curves" and keeps direct sun out
a load-bearing inner wall about half a metre inside it, with larger openings for the rooms
a folded plate roof; CDS says the curved walls and the folded roof add stability

As a general principle, a half-brick wall standing on its own is thin, and curving it in plan makes it stiffer than a straight wall of the same thickness. CDS says the double wall moves breeze around the building, keeps the inside cool and avoids air-conditioning.

Part plan and section principle of the CDS Computer Centre: an outer half-brick jaali wall winding in repeating curves stands about half a metre outside a load-bearing inner wall with larger openings; sun stops at the jaali, breeze moves through the gap and into the room under a folded plate roof — The Computer Centre's double wall: a curving jaali screen takes the sun, and the breeze runs between it and the load-bearing wall. Diagram: MOA

Laurie Baker filler slab roof at the Baker Auditorium

CDS's Baker Auditorium page describes a "turtle-shaped" building with a staggered jaali running floor to ceiling on both sides for year-round ventilation. Its ceiling is an unplastered filler slab, which CDS says handles the acoustics well enough for a speaker to be heard without a microphone. CDS does not say what the filler material is.

Bamboo in the floors

Hochschild reports that at CDS split bamboo grids replace steel rods in some concrete floors and steps, at under 5% of the cost, without saying which buildings.

What about the rat-trap bond?

Rat-trap bond is a brick wall laid on edge with a cavity inside; Ankitha Gattupalli in ArchDaily (2025) describes it as cutting brick use by about 25% while improving insulation. Online notes often list it at CDS, but no CDS page, review or press report we opened ties it to a particular CDS building. Check Pillai's drawings or the site before you claim it.

Materials and construction

Brick: the main material, left bare, as every source describes.
Lime from seashells: Hochschild writes that Baker "made lime on the spot". He had bullock-cart loads of seashells gathered from beaches a few miles away and baked in a mud kiln, so some office walls are partly bound with lime from shells.
Laterite: Arts Illustrated and ArchEyes both mention laterite alongside brick, without saying where it is used.
Cost: Hochschild reports that Baker built CDS for "roughly half the normal cost per square foot of Indian university buildings". No source we found gives the rupee cost.

For how brick compares with blocks today, see our guide to red brick, AAC, fly ash and concrete block.

Light, climate and services

Thiruvananthapuram is warm and wet all year. The station normals published by the Japan Meteorological Agency's Tokyo Climate Center give monthly mean temperatures between 27.0°C (July) and 29.5°C (April), and about 1,850 mm of rain a year, with peaks in June and October as both monsoons pass. Here shade and moving air matter most, and the campus works on both:

Jaali for shade and air: the Computer Centre's screen and the auditorium's side walls, as above.
Water and shade: Hochschild describes small courtyards around pools whose evaporation helps fight the heat, and shade from coconut palms. The Main Block's director's office overlooks a water body, per CDS.
Little air-conditioning: in 2000 Hochschild found air conditioners only in one or two places, "such as the campus computer center". CDS today says the Computer Centre's double wall avoids air-conditioning. The two accounts disagree on that building, and the gap may reflect a later change.

Our Kerala building materials guide covers monsoon detailing.

Reception and how the buildings are used today

Press: Hochschild in 2000 called the campus Baker's finest work. The IANS report of 2007 said architecture students from India and abroad often come to see it.
Documentation: Pillai's book, from COSTFORD and the Laurie Baker Centre, collects drawings and photographs of the campus. Khan's review describes its plans, sections and elevations of each building.
Adaptation: Arts Illustrated (2026) notes how users have changed the buildings. Lights now hang from the high ceilings, mesh doors keep out mosquitoes, and exposed electrical lines carry internet cabling.

We found no published report of major leaks, structural problems or a demolition proposal, and no condition survey. If you visit for a study, record the condition yourself.

What designers in India can take from CDS today

These are our reading of the sources, not claims made by Baker or CDS.

Split the wall's jobs. At the Computer Centre one wall carries the load and has normal windows, and a second, lighter wall handles sun and breeze. For a jaali on a west or south face in a hot, humid city, a screen set off the main wall can shade the glass without cutting the airflow.
Let the structure finish the room. The auditorium's unplastered filler slab is the ceiling and helps the acoustics.
Site around what is already there. Keep the high ground for the main building, step the rest down the contours and plan around existing trees. Shade from mature trees cannot be bought later.
Plan for services from day one. The added wiring and mesh doors show that bare brick buildings need routes for cables and insect screens. Draw them in at the start, so they do not have to be added on the surface later.

Visiting the Centre for Development Studies

CDS is a working institute, and its website publishes no visitor policy or tours. Its contact page gives the address (Prasanth Nagar, Medical College P.O., Ulloor, Thiruvananthapuram 695011) and the phone number +91-471-2774200. Contact the institute before you go, especially to photograph or measure. The library page says the library is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday to Friday, mainly for CDS faculty and students, and that visiting researchers can apply for reference membership.

Want to commission a building that works this hard for its climate? Find an architect on MOA.

FAQ

Who designed the Centre for Development Studies in Thiruvananthapuram?

Laurie Baker. CDS's own pages say he conceived and designed the campus and its buildings, and its auditorium is named after him.

When was the CDS campus built?

The institute was set up on 19 October 1970. Baker's official list of works dates the campus to 1971, and CDS says the main library tower was completed in the early 1970s. A second library block was added in the late 2000s.

Where is the Centre for Development Studies?

At Prasanth Nagar, Ulloor, in the north-west of Thiruvananthapuram (postal address Medical College P.O., 695011), Kerala.

What is special about the CDS library?

It is a circular brick tower, seven storeys per CDS (eight per a 2007 IANS report), and the tallest building on the campus, with a later block built in the same design.

Is rat-trap bond used at CDS?

Possibly, but we could not find a primary source that ties it to a specific CDS building. The documented methods there are jaali walls, the Computer Centre's double wall, a filler slab ceiling in the auditorium, lime made from seashells and bamboo in some floors.

Sources

Centre for Development Studies: History and Background (accessed 4 Nov 2026)
Centre for Development Studies: About the Campus (accessed 4 Nov 2026)
Centre for Development Studies: Main Block (accessed 4 Nov 2026)
Centre for Development Studies: K. N. Raj Library (accessed 4 Nov 2026)
Centre for Development Studies: Computer Centre (accessed 4 Nov 2026)
Centre for Development Studies: Baker Auditorium (accessed 4 Nov 2026)
Centre for Development Studies: Administration Building, Kaldor, Guest House, Cafeteria, Hostel, Joan Robinson Hall and Contact Us (accessed 4 Nov 2026)
Laurie Baker (official site): List of Architectural Work (accessed 4 Nov 2026)
Laurie Baker (official site): Settling Down Finally: Trivandrum (accessed 4 Nov 2026)
Mother Jones: The Brick Master of Kerala, Adam Hochschild, July/August 2000 (accessed 4 Nov 2026)
Architectural Record: Laurie Baker, architect for India's poor, dies at 90, David Sokol, 24 April 2007 (accessed 4 Nov 2026)
The Tribune (IANS): Building a vision brick by brick, 8 April 2007 (accessed 4 Nov 2026)
The Book Review: Sculpting With Bricks, Nisar Khan, February 2015 (accessed 4 Nov 2026)
American Bazaar: Book review: Masterpiece of a Master Architect, Krishnakumar S., 9 January 2015 (accessed 4 Nov 2026)
Arts Illustrated: Brick by Brick, Shruti Omprakash, July 2026 (accessed 4 Nov 2026)
ArchEyes: Centre for Development Studies by Laurie Baker, 15 December 2024 (accessed 4 Nov 2026)
ArchDaily: Laurie Baker's Legacy and the Democratization of Indian Architecture, Ankitha Gattupalli, 23 June 2025 (accessed 4 Nov 2026)
Japan Meteorological Agency, Tokyo Climate Center: Monthly normals, Thiruvananthapuram (accessed 4 Nov 2026)