DeRoche Projects Breaks Ground on Productive Community Garden in Accra

Key facts

• DeRoche Projects has broken ground on the Backyard Community Garden in Osu, Accra, Ghana.
• The garden is the second phase of the wider Backyard Urban Campus.
• The masterplan distributes buildings, landscapes, and public spaces across the neighborhood.
• The garden is organized around gathering, cultivation, play, food, and informal exchange.
• Gardens planted with species used in Ghanaian cooking and traditional medicine sit alongside areas for leisure, contemplation, and education.
• Produce grown on site will feed into the café’s seasonal menu.
• The layout takes cues from agricultural planning systems found across West Africa.
• The garden includes a sunken garden, six-meter canopy water feature, cast-in-place seating, and games including Oware.
• Three small buildings—café pavilion, ancillary building, and water folly—are dispersed through the site.
• The café has a generous veranda inspired by outdoor rooms associated with communal life.
• DeRoche Projects is developing stabilized rammed earth mixes that reduce Portland cement using locally available lime and pozzolanic ash.
• The garden uses crushed palm kernel shells as a permeable surface.
• Pipes collect rainwater for irrigation.
• The Backyard Community Garden is scheduled for 2027.
• The project is part of the Backyard Urban Campus in Osu.