Ghana’s local architecture has adapted to change for centuries. It can teach us about climate resilience

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When people discuss architecture in Ghana, attention often focuses on modern buildings: concrete houses, glass offices, shopping malls and ambitious urban developments. Yet across the country, another architectural tradition continues to offer lessons about how people have built and lived for generations.

This is vernacular architecture. It is not uniquely Ghanaian. The term refers to buildings and settlements shaped largely by local knowledge, materials, construction techniques, cultural practices and environmental conditions of a particular region. It is not simply old or traditional architecture. Rather, it represents knowledge developed through many years of observation, adaptation and experience.

In Ghana, this relationship appears in the use of earth, timber, thatch and other locally available materials. Compounds arranged around courtyards, designs that respond to sunlight and prevailing winds, shaded outdoor spaces and settlement patterns that reflect social relationships and communal life.

These features emerged over generations. Communities learned how materials behaved, how buildings responded to seasonal changes and how spaces could support private and collective activities.

I am an architect who has researched and taught building technology for a decade. In a recent paper, I examine how vernacular architecture in Ghana has been understood, documented and interpreted.

A key finding from my study is that Ghana's vernacular architecture is not a single tradition but a diverse body of knowledge shaped by climate and community. There are examples in the hot-dry savannah belt, the warm-humid forest belt and hot-humid coastal zones. Communities developed distinct building strategies in response to heat, rainfall, humidity, local materials and everyday life.

I conclude that the future lies in bringing that knowledge into today's architectural design. Where appropriate, it can be done through materials, spatial arrangements and the way a building works with its environment.

More than old buildings

For my research, I drew on the work of scholars who have helped document and interpret vernacular architectural knowledge in Ghana.

For example, architect and researcher Labelle Prussin examined northern Ghanaian settlements and household architecture. She demonstrated how building forms were closely related to social organisation, culture and the environment. Her work helped establish the importance of understanding African architecture through its social and environmental context.

The late German architect and scholar Hannah Schreckenbach also documented indigenous building practices and construction technologies in Ghana. She contributed to wider recognition of local architectural knowledge and its relevance to architectural education and practice.

My work is different. It brings together the environmental, cultural, spatial, material and institutional dimensions of vernacular architecture. This approach helps connect earlier documentation of vernacular buildings with their continuing relevance to Ghana's built environment.

The findings also show why vernacular architecture should not be viewed simply as a record or symbol of the past. Preserving buildings is important, but vernacular architecture is also a living body of knowledge.

A vernacular building contains information about climate, materials, construction, social organisation and cultural identity. Its walls, openings, courtyards and orientation work together as a system. Through it, communities respond to environmental conditions and social needs. This knowledge matters as Ghana faces rapid urbanisation, rising construction costs, climate pressures and growing demand for buildings that consume less energy and fewer resources.

It's not a complete solution for every building, but offers principles that architects can reinterpret through modern technologies and materials.

What needs to be kept, what is no longer relevant?

This knowledge, however, is vulnerable. Rapid urbanisation, changing lifestyles, imported materials, standardised building practices and the perception that concrete represents progress can push aside vernacular knowledge.

When an earth building disappears, we lose more than a physical structure. We also lose knowledge about preparing materials, responding to climate, organising spaces and involving communities in construction and use. However, this does not mean every vernacular building should be kept unchanged.

For example, traditional earth construction may require improved foundations and moisture protection. Thatched roofs may need some changes to details to make them safer and longer lasting. Traditional layouts may have to adapt to sanitation, accessibility and household requirements.

A better question is: what knowledge from the past can help us build the future?

Rethinking progress

Sustainable architecture cannot simply mean importing technologies that were developed elsewhere. It must also recognise knowledge that already exists within communities. Sustainability is not new.

Communities have long developed ways of building that respond to climate, resources, cultural values and collective needs.

The future will not be found by choosing between vernacular and modern architecture. It lies in bringing older knowledge into today's design. Earth construction can be improved, not abandoned. Passive cooling can inform contemporary design. Courtyard principles can inform modern housing. Local materials can be reconsidered alongside appropriate technologies.

Ghana's vernacular architecture is not simply an inheritance from yesterday.

It is a resource for tomorrow.

Saeed Akannah Junior does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

By Saeed Akannah Junior, Lecturer, School of Build Environment, Bolgatanga Technical University