As a concept, ‘plug-in architecture’ is employed in the team’s architectural approach of intervening in already existing structures, including in the making of the Surf Ghana Collective house in Busua. In light of this, Plugin Busua, a multi-genre installation work, re-imagines the unique adaptive reuse style. As featured in the segment, Guests from the Future at the Biennale Architettura 2023: The Laboratory of the Future, DeRoché Strohmayer exhibited Plugin Busua – a three-dimensional sculptural composition consisting of interconnected layers of architectural fragments made in collaboration with a team of carpenters, painters and fabricators, and embedded with film clips and site-specific sounds by Nii Obodai. While multi modally translocating the atmosphere and physical connections of the community surf lodge in Busua, the piece explores abstract but descriptive spatial connections in a multi-sensorial manner.

“Plug-In Busua” at La Biennale di Venezia, installation at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice,Italy, 2023, Photos: Viktor Orgonyi.

Furthermore, the recently inaugurated writers’ and curators’ residency, space- dot.ateliers|Ogbojo, conceptualized and constructed by DeRoché Strohmayer, is also worthy of note. Commissioned by renowned artist, Amoako Boafo, the space aims to encourage creativity and imagination while intentionally allowing space for rest and reflection. The structure demonstrates how compositional elegance can be orchestrated through simple but conscious choices, from using locally-sourced materials to eco-friendly design options that factor in natural elements. “Working with locally sourced materials creates a direct relationship between architecture and place. This is a relationship we are always exploring as a way of celebrating idiosyncrasies and grounding our work within the culture of the places we build in globally,” Glenn DeRoché explained.

Horizontally laid out in monochrome, dot.ateliers|Ogbojo’s interiors are exposed into the exteriors through the use of a labyrinthine canopy with gapes, as opposed to peaked roofs or gables. The enclosed sections of the building include a living area, library, gym and kitchen on the ground floor and private en suite rooms on the first floor. 

Canopies are indeed the very sheltering devices, doubling as important transitory spaces, that increase the accessible area for social gatherings. The traditional local courtyard is referenced in the ambient relationship between the totally or partially enclosed spaces and the building’s exterior.

Openings and patios are voids which puncture the building in order to let in light and air, thereby reducing direct heat gain. Locally sourced walnut timber linings of the interior dialogue with an artisanal earth-rendering feature of the outer surface. Cylindrical pillars form the legs of the minimalistic framework, reflected by the ground floor glasswork facing a pool that looks to the skies through a rectangular gape in the sheathing canopy. Additionally, water can be harvested from an underground cistern, which aids in buffering the rainwater runoff, and the structure makes use of solar water heaters installed on the roof.

Although dot.ateliers|Ogbojo is a bigger project and a bit more high-end than the more affordable community project in Busua, the building process was done with exactly the same workers on the team and the unique, ecologically sound DeRoché Strohmayer render method was used again here. “We do not separate ourselves from the people that use the spaces we make or the people that build the spaces we make,” Juergen Strohmayer asserted, emphasizing the significance of reclaiming agency over the ethics and labor conditions under which the architectural practice operates, where collaboration is valued amongst many actors in different areas of their expertise in order to move beyond the issues of our time.

By working with a metal worker, DeRoché Strohmayer converted brass salvaged from extraction sites in Accra into a brass door handle, and collaborated with a local carpenter to create wood joinery and bespoke fittings for curtain rails. To minimize their environmental impact, DeRoché Strohmayer projects thrive on a fundamental redesignation of value, where form and function are explored simultaneously through a conscious study of materials.

Both dot.ateliers|Ogbojo and the Surf Ghana Collective projects breathe new life into already existing properties that have been forged into beacons of eco-friendliness. The clean façades, crafted from responsibly mixed concrete and the handcrafted details made from locally-sourced materials, curtail the structures’ overall carbon footprint and fortify their engaging characters, while also ensuring that the past remains an integral part of the now. Furthermore, the potential for the architecture of today to negotiate economic, political and cultural issues with regards to energy systems can be seen in both of DeRoché Strohmayer’s projects in Ghana.