DeRoche Projects encloses Accra tennis court with rammed-earth walls

Four-metre-high rammed-earth walls frame the plot of Backyard Community Club in Accra, Ghana, completed by local studio DeRoche Projects.

Backyard Community Club is a mixed-use public space that centres around a tennis court, accompanied by ancillary spaces and 230 square metres of gardens.

DeRoche Projects designed it as a "platform for community, mentorship, and movement" that it said offers a "new model for shared civic life".

"The architecture is deliberately open-ended, where lines between sport, gathering, learning, and rest are blurred," studio founder Glenn DeRoche told Dezeen.

"It's in the court, the shaded walkways, and lush vegetation where life emerges, shaped not by a fixed program but by the people who use it," he added.

Backyard Community Club opens up from a street-facing entrance to a paved walkway that doubles as a flexible space for community activities.

Flanking the walkway are plots of the 230-square-metre sustenance garden, which is planted with over 20 species of edible and medicinal plants.

From here, visitors can access the tennis court, which is demarcated by the angular rammed-earth walls and designed to double as a flexible community space.

DeRoche Projects chose rammed earth to enclose the courts to celebrate local, low-carbon materials. It has been partly finished in clay and lined with a built-in bench that offers shaded seating for spectators.

According to the studio, the Backyard Community Club is "Ghana's first project using a precast rammed earth system" – a method it said reimagines the ancient, clay-based material for "contemporary, scalable use".

Rammed earth is a building method where soil is packed into formwork and compressed, leaving a solid wall when the formwork is removed.

While it is possible to construct with rammed earth in its raw form, in this project, the material has been stabilised with cement. However, according to the studio, the quantity of cement was minimised to just three per cent of the total material mix.

"Our approach embraces locally sourced materials rooted in tradition, while exploring innovative strategies to create a resilient and forward-looking built environment," DeRoche said.

"DeRoche Projects is advancing innovative methods of precasting rammed earth at scale, refining the material's structural and environmental potential while maintaining its tactile and vernacular richness."

A block at the back of the site contains ancillary spaces including changing rooms, showers and toilets. This low-lying volume is complemented by sunken seating at its front and an open-air courtyard at its side entrance.

Other smaller volumes serve as storage space to support the facility's programmes.

Other community spaces recently featured on Dezeen include a clubhouse featuring meandering alleyways in Pune and a community education and arts centre in New York transformed from a former tobacco warehouse.

Rammed earth was also recently used to create a kindergarten in Cameroon by Urbanitree and a shelter in an Irish park by Fuinneamh Workshop Architects.

The photography is by Julien Lanoo.

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