Ben Derlan

Adjunct Lecturer in Architecture

Ben Derlan is an artist and architectural designer based in New Orleans. He uses writing, photography, & design to think about the politics, form, & ecologies of the built environment. He began his career with the Neighborhood Design Center, a community design nonprofit, working to create more equitable public space and access to greenspace in Baltimore, where he also managed an urban farm. After receiving his Master of Architecture in 2023 from the Yale School of Architecture, he spent a year in Los Angeles managing the construction of historic residential renovations with Speedboat, a design-build firm, and working on an ongoing personal narrative documentary film project, WATERWORKS. In addition to teaching at Tulane, he also works at the Small Center and teaches art history at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. He is the founder of Field Works, an experimental research & design studio. He is from Cumberland, a small Appalachian city along the Potomac River in Western Maryland.