Issue Nº 01 · October 2026 Accra · 5.60° N, 0.19° W Notes on Ghana's built environment
The Veranda

Where we sit, talk and watch the street.

Afternoon light through a breeze-block screen on a west-facing wall.Plate I
Cover essay · Climate

Why Ghana's new homes are getting hotter

The compound houses our grandparents built stayed cool without a single air conditioner. Many of today's estates can't be lived in without one. What did we lose, and what can we take back?

Joseph Eguei YarteyConstruction technologist · 5 min read
Read the essay →

On the veranda

Essays and what's coming next

  1. i

    Why Ghana's new homes are getting hotter

    The compound houses our grandparents built stayed cool without a single air conditioner. Many of today's estates can't be lived in without one. What did we lose, and what can we take back?

    Climate5 min
  2. ii

    Laterite, earth and the materials we overlook

    Coming soon

    MaterialsNext
  3. iii

    Accra floods every year. Our sites are part of it.

    Coming soon

    The CityNext
  4. iv

    The parlour nobody sits in

    Coming soon

    DesignNext
Why “The Veranda”

In Ghana, the veranda is where people sit, talk and watch the street go by. This journal is a place to do the same with the buildings, streets and cities around us.

Essays on climate, design, materials and the way we build, written from the site and the street by Joseph Eguei Yartey, construction technologist. More about the journal.

The Veranda Letter

New essays, once or twice a month

Get each new piece by email. No noise, just the next conversation from the veranda.