MCB Engineering
Architecture, urbanism and territorial strategy
Since 1996, MCB has accompanied the transformation of Mauritania’s built environment through architecture, urbanism, and the coordination of institutional and private projects. The office operates as a think-and-do platform for territorial transformation.
Studio
Founded in 1996 by Menih Ould Tah, Architect ITAAUT, and structured as a company in 1998, MCB has spent nearly three decades contributing to projects that have shaped the Mauritanian territory. The office works where duration, knowledge of local actors and institutional continuity matter as much as design itself.
From urban planning to university facilities, from diplomatic programmes to benchmark private developments, MCB works at the intersection of institutions, investors and development partners. Its position is not that of a service catalogue, but of a trusted counterpart able to anchor a project in context, schedule and implementation realities.
Selected projects
At the University of Nouakchott, MCB reviewed execution studies and supervised the construction of a large academic complex combining teaching, housing, dining and worship facilities.
2019 View projects
In Nouakchott, MCB contributed to the Lycée Théodore Monod project, an educational programme delivered in association and supported by French and Saudi institutional partners.
2016 View projects
With this project in Cape Verde, MCB marked an early regional experience in West Africa and confirmed its ability to work beyond Mauritania within a public procurement framework.
2006 View projects
In the early 2000s, MCB designed one of the country’s first distance-learning centres, at a moment when educational digital infrastructure was emerging in Mauritania.
2003 View projects
Designed in association with BICA, the embassy project develops a restrained diplomatic language inspired by Sidi Bou Saïd and adapted to the Nouakchott context.
2014 View projects
In Zaragoza, MCB designed and supervised the Mauritanian pavilion for Expo ZAR08, an international representation project where space, image and narrative had to work together.
2008 View projectsJournal
24 April 2025
Institutional architecture is not merely a representational exercise. In Mauritania, it accompanies the formation of administrations, public services and facilities that give durable form to collective action.
Read article11 March 2025
In projects financed by development partners or delivered with foreign consultants, the quality of the local counterpart often determines the project’s success.
Read article7 February 2025
As a rapidly growing city, Nouakchott must reconcile urban expansion, environmental vulnerability and the need for structuring facilities.
Read articleChronology
Reference Urban Programmes for Néma and Aioun.
SMCP headquarters in Nouadhibou.
CFED in Nouakchott.
High schools in Santiago, Cape Verde.
Ribat Al Bahr — master plan and programming.
Ribat Al Bahr shopping centre.
Embassy of Tunisia in Nouakchott.
University of Nouakchott.
Le Mirador restaurant, Ribat Al Bahr.
