Her first public commission was a memorial sculpture to President Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh in Co.Kerry (1983). The abstract steel sculpture, Memorial to Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh, depicts the seascape in Sneem, where President Ó Dálaigh chose to live after he resigned the Presidency.
Sentinel (1994), outside St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, and Liberty Bell (1988) inside St. Patrick's Cathedral Park in Dublin, both respond to their historic setting, using the metaphor of sound, Viking reference and existing architectural features, to extend their reach.
Plumbline in Dublin Castle (1995), Inclination (after Degas’s ‘The Acrobat’) in The Tyndall National Institute UCC (1996), Wave Shadow in The Dublin Dental Hospital (1999), and Flow in the Council Chamber of Fingal County Hall (2002) are all largescale public art works that respond dynamically to their architectural environment.
Large-scale temporary installations made during this time include Windflip in Orebro, Sweden (1989), and Ompholos in Charroux Abbey, near Poitiers, France (1996)
Other permanent works have light as a central theme. NC Iris (2006) is a 14.5 metre-high sculpture in Mayor Square Dublin, which utilises the moiré effects of specially designed stainless-steel as a canvas for changing coloured light which is computer-controlled.
Whitelight Garden in Parkwest (Dublin) was completed in 2006. This is a land-sculpted, three-acre public garden by day and a major light-artwork by night. It traces the archaeology of the Early Christian Burial site over which it is made. Whitelight Garden won the Business2arts Judges Special Recognition Award in 2007.
Light Ensemble (2008) in CIT Cork School of Music is another award-winning work. This suite of three large site-specific pieces (painting, plaster-relief, and sculpture) is a sculptural homage to architecture, music and time. Each constitutive work enables the ways in which light falls within the building's atria to becoming substantial, the painting and the plaster work on specific days in the calendar year.
Light House, a poem-sculpture in glass, is a collaboration with the poet Derek Mahon. Four metres high and made in layers of fused-glass, within which the poem is suspended, it was made for the new Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gealtacht HQ in Killarney in 2009. The optical qualities of the poem within layers of glass give a unique reading point for each person, which depends on their height.
Bray Hare, completed in 2009, is a playful piece of sculpture as theatre, with an elusive glass hare at centre stage. Made for the local authority-funded leisure centre in Bray, Co Wicklow, the steel, glass and light work makes reference to the story by Ted Hughes, 'How the Hare Became'.
Vivienne Roche was part of the design team with MOLA Architecture, which delivered the Diving Bell project for Dublin Port. Located on Sir John Rogerson's Quay, the Diving Bell has been re-interpreted as an industrial artefact which helped to shape the port of Dublin. It was opened to the public in 2016.
2010 Echo, Again Kilkelly, (Mayo Co. Council percent for art commission)
2009 Light House, a collaboration with poet Derek Mahon, Dept.of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht HQ Killarney (Office of Public Works)
2009 Bray Hare, Bray Leisure Centre, (Wicklow Co. Council percent for art)
2008 Light Ensemble, CIT Cork School of Music. (MOLA and Sisk)