An Evening With: Glenn DeRocheAn Evening With: Glenn DeRoche

Glenn DeRoche founded DeRoche Projects in Accra, Ghana, in 2022. This architecture and design firm operates internationally, creating innovative, community-driven spaces. The studio embraces contrasting approaches, combining digital exploration with hands-on creation, high-tech precision with low-tech ingenuity, and contemporary construction practices with Indigenous building traditions.

The result is a methodologythat is both planet-positive and future-forward, and which is deeply connected to place and time. Rather than being treated as an add-on, sustainability is embedded in the design process. Regenerative materials, passive environmental strategies and resource-conscious construction methods foster ecological and social resilience.

Glenn DeRoche is a Brooklyn-born architect and designer of Caribbean descent who is currently based in Accra and New York City. Moving between the United States, the Caribbean and West Africa in his early years has shaped his understanding of the built environment, where climate, culture and resources influence how and why we build. He graduated cum laude with a Bachelor's degree in Architecture from the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York and went on to gain a Master's degree with distinction from the Bartlett School of Architecture in London.

In 2026, DeRoche was the Richard F. Hansen Lecturer in Architecture at Iowa State University, serving as guest juror for the Richard F. Hansen Prize. Most recently, he launched the Soil Sisters Spring Lecture Series at the Yale School of Architecture.

Founded in 2022, notable projects and collaborations include the Backyard Community Club, a tennis training facility and community hub in Accra; dot.ateliers | Ogbojo, a residency for writers and curators in Accra which was named an Editor’s Pick in the 2024 Architect's Newspaper Best in Design Awards; the exhibition design for Amoako Boafo’s I Do Not Come to You by Chance at the Gagosian Mayfair gallery in London; the Volta Pavilion, which was exhibited at the Belvedere Museum in Vienna; and the Surf Ghana Collective, which was exhibited at the 2022 Venice Architecture Biennale, winner of the 2023 Holcim Gold Award for SustainableConstruction. The jury recognised it as “an innovative project that creates a dynamic community space, empowering youth and promoting responsible tourism through a cooperative approach”. In November 2025, DeRoche Projects was nominated for the AR Emerging Awards, an international prize established by The Architectural Review to celebrate tomorrow’s architectural stars.

An Evening With is a series of talks featuring emerging and established international figures from the worlds of design, architecture and digital culture. Designers and artists guide the audience through their work, sources of inspiration, fascinations and aspirations for the future. An Evening About showcases how designers’ ideas live on in the work of the current generation.