Adapt Before Transposing: Reflections on the Design of a Transport Hub in Nouakchott
By Manuel Vieitez, Architect-Biologist – BA-REC Consulting
In Nouakchott, the design of a new bus terminal led the project teams to question several assumptions about public space planning. Between urban practices, greening in a desert environment and local know-how, this experience reminds us that a successful project cannot simply be transposed: it must be adapted.
Founded in 1958 and designed to accommodate 8,000 inhabitants by 1970, Nouakchott already had nearly 130,000 residents just five years later, in 1975. The severe droughts of the 1970s drove tens of thousands of people from what was still a predominantly nomadic society towards the capital. Combined with the concentration of administration, services and economic opportunities, these movements led to exceptional growth. Within a few decades, the small administrative capital became a metropolis of more than one million inhabitants.
The city has always grown faster than forecasts and urban plans anticipated. Neighbourhoods expanded mainly along major transport corridors, while infrastructure and services, quickly overwhelmed, followed only belatedly and partially. Today, the metropolitan area generates more than 3.1 million daily trips. Mobility has thus become one of the main challenges facing a city whose structure has largely developed in response to the immediate needs and daily adaptations of its inhabitants.
Faced with this situation, the Nouakchott Region has embarked on a gradual transformation of its mobility system. The Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan combines the development of a more structured public transport network, the introduction of a future Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, improved intermodality and renewed attention to pedestrian mobility. The objective is no longer simply to transport more passengers, but also to better integrate mobility infrastructure into the city and contribute to making a particularly dense, built-up and heavily used city centre more liveable.
Within this framework, the Nouakchott Region, as project owner, entrusted BAREC with the technical studies for two complementary pilot projects: the development of a bus terminal opposite the National Hospital and the creation of a Green Corridor near the Capital Market. Developed under the ARENDDRE programme, funded by the European Union and co-financed by the French Global Environment Facility (FFEM), these projects seek to experiment, on a small scale, with ways of combining mobility, public space, greening and climate adaptation, in order to draw lessons that could be replicated elsewhere in the city.
Their highly central locations place them in direct connection with the future BRT system. The terminal borders the planned route of Line 3 along Gamal Abdel Nasser Avenue, while the Green Corridor is located near the BDM intersection, at the planned crossing of Lines 4 and 5. These two projects therefore complement the transformation of the transport system through the upgrading of urban space, based on more comfortable pedestrian routes, increased shade and vegetation, and better integration of mobility hubs into the city centre.
It is in this context that the new Nouakchott bus terminal was designed. It occupies a rectangular plot of approximately 1,800 m² belonging to the Public Transport Company, previously used as a car park by National Hospital staff and other visitors. The site is located along Gamal Abdel Nasser Avenue, one of the capital's main thoroughfares, opposite the hospital entrance, in an environment intensely frequented by pedestrians, taxis and vehicles, and animated by small shops and méchoui restaurants. Within just a few metres, this place concentrates much of Nouakchott's vitality, but also the tensions that affect its urban space on a daily basis.
Five lines of the new urban bus network introduced in 2025 will have their starting and terminating points here. Before its introduction, Nouakchott, a capital of more than one million inhabitants, did not have a structured bus network capable of clearly organising its main public transport movements. The terminal's purpose is not merely to provide an arrival and departure point: it must also organise traffic flows, protect waiting areas, provide shade and comfort, and establish a clearer relationship between transport and public space.
To address these challenges, we initially relied on the tools and references most familiar to us: technical manuals, comparable projects and examples drawn largely from European cities. In these contexts, the design of transport interchanges generally places central importance on the smooth flow of traffic, the continuity of pedestrian routes and the openness of space towards the city.
The objectives remained entirely relevant: efficiency, safety, accessibility and comfort. But we gradually understood that the way these objectives were translated into spatial design could not simply be transferred unchanged. The principles could be shared; the solutions, however, had to be reconsidered in light of local practices, site constraints and the resources actually available. Nouakchott thus forced us to look differently at what had seemed obvious to us and, above all, to listen to local stakeholders, who know the surrounding reality perfectly well.
The Fence We Did Not Understand at First
The terminal fence provides a very concrete example. Our initial instinct was to leave the site open. We imagined a permeable space, connected to the city, equipped with benches and shaded areas, which could almost function as a public space associated with transport.
The Nouakchott Region, however, insisted that the terminal should be fenced. At first, we struggled to understand why. Why enclose a space that we specifically wanted to be open, fluid and functional?
The answer was right before our eyes.
In Nouakchott, it is common, particularly in the late afternoon, to see groups spreading out a large mat in almost any available space: a pavement, a car park, sometimes even an asphalted surface. They settle there, sitting or lying down, sometimes for hours, to talk, prepare tea, eat or pray. It is an everyday way of spending the evening and appropriating space.
Observing this practice through the lens of the project, we understood something very simple: if we created a flat, clean, shaded space equipped with benches, it would probably become an ideal place to stay, even without any intention of taking the bus.
Our local counterparts had understood this before we did. The decision to fence the terminal then began to make complete sense.
The terminal had to fulfil its primary function: allowing buses to arrive and depart, passengers to circulate, and people to wait in comfort and in an orderly manner. It was therefore decided to fence the site and control access. Not because the other way of occupying space was illegitimate, but because both functions needed to find their own place.
Enclosing the terminal did not eliminate the need for an open space. It simply shifted it elsewhere.
Near the plot, the presence of the National Hospital, patients and their companions, who often wait outside, as well as existing small shops and restaurants, revealed the need for a complementary public space.
The future square emerged from this distinction: preserving an organised and controlled space for transport within the terminal, while developing a nearby open, shaded and welcoming place. It is not intended to become a grand ceremonial public space, but rather to offer somewhere people can wait and meet.
The project thus distinguishes between two complementary needs: an operational and controlled space dedicated to transport, and an open space where urban life can pause, wait and come together.
An Informal Practice Sometimes Contains Part of the Solution
The ambition to develop pilot greening initiatives was at the heart of the project. Here, observing another practice found in the streets of Nouakchott proved particularly meaningful. In the city centre, dozens of small plant vendors set up informally on the pavements. Gradually, their pots and trees form improvised nurseries.
From a functional point of view, the problem is obvious: they occupy part of the pavement and, in some cases, obstruct pedestrian movement. However, these people manage to keep plants alive in Nouakchott. They water and maintain them, and earn their living from them.
Rather than simply seeking to remove this activity from public space, we wondered whether it could find a place within the new development. The approach being explored is simple: reserve certain areas of the future square, in connection with the planters (planted areas created as part of the project), and make them available to these small vendors.
They would thus have a more suitable place to carry out their activities. Pedestrians would regain the use of the pavements, while the square would benefit from greater activity and vegetation. Some planters could be linked to their activities, allowing their daily maintenance to be entrusted to people with a direct interest in keeping the plants in good condition.
What if, rather than eliminating an informal practice, we sought to understand the function it serves and offer it a more appropriate place?
Creating Soil to Green the City
In Nouakchott, introducing vegetation into public spaces requires not only choosing plants capable of withstanding the climate and soil salinity, but also having soil that allows them to survive.
Priority was given to plant species native to Mauritania, as well as species already present in Nouakchott's gardens, streets and public spaces, whose adaptation to the city's conditions has therefore been demonstrated. A few less common species were also introduced experimentally, in order to observe how they perform in this environment.
The main difficulty arose when it came to determining the substrate in which to plant them. The topsoil normally used to prepare a planter is almost impossible to find in Mauritania. Importing it would be expensive and inconsistent with a project based on self-reliance and sustainability.
This led us to stop thinking of soil as a material that could simply be purchased, and instead to consider it as something that had to be created. Drawing on previous experience and, above all, discussions with farmers and people accustomed to growing plants under these conditions, a mixture of locally available materials was defined: washed sand, well-rotted camel manure, local clay and straw, combined in precise proportions.
The sand facilitates drainage, the clay helps retain moisture, the manure provides organic matter, and the straw improves soil structure. The surface will also be protected against evaporation by a ground cover of succulent plants adapted to the arid conditions of the environment.
This is neither a sophisticated solution nor a fixed recipe, but an attempt to produce fertile soil from available resources and knowledge that does not come solely from technical studies. Much of this knowledge comes from farmers and others who have managed to grow plants in this environment for years.
Our task was to gather this knowledge, relate it to the project's needs and translate it into a solution that could be implemented, maintained and adjusted over time. Before greening the city, we first had to create the soil that this vegetation needs.
Unlearning to Adapt Better
We did not seek to design a grand urban landmark. Instead, we worked on a series of simple measures, adapted to the realities of the context, compatible with local practices and capable of continuing to function once construction work is completed.
These objectives are modest. Yet achieving them in Nouakchott is not always simple. The complexity of the project perhaps lies less in what can be seen than in everything we had to understand in order to simplify it.
The terminal is still under construction. We therefore cannot present these choices as definitively validated solutions. Some will work as we hope; others will undoubtedly need to be adjusted. That, too, is part of the process.
After more than four years of living and working in Mauritania, I have begun to understand certain social practices that would probably have escaped me during my first visits. A mission lasting a few days allows one to visit sites, take measurements, meet stakeholders and gather a great deal of information. But some practices only truly reveal themselves when one lives in the territory.
This knowledge remains incomplete. It probably always will. But it has taught me to be wary of overly quick answers and to accept that the most obvious solutions on paper are not necessarily the most appropriate ones on the ground.
Listen. Observe. Understand. Question. Adapt.
Adapting does not mean lowering our ambitions. We still want an efficient transport system, pleasant public spaces, shade, vegetation, accessibility, sanitation and sustainable solutions. Learning to question our own assumptions means seeking the most appropriate way to achieve these objectives.
This experience goes beyond the case of the terminal alone. More broadly, it raises questions about the way we transfer models of mobility and urban planning between profoundly different cities.
Principles can travel. Solutions, however, must land.
To enable them to do so, we, as designers and technical experts, must accept that we do not always immediately understand reality. This means listening to what escapes us at first, observing before deciding, and recognising that the knowledge needed for a project is not found solely in our plans.
Sometimes it can be found in a conversation with a farmer or a plant nursery operator who keeps plants alive on a pavement, with a family preparing tea on a mat at dusk, or in the words of a representative of the Region who repeats, meeting after meeting, that the terminal must be fenced.
Perhaps unlearning simply means this: accepting that before transforming a place, we must first allow that place to transform, at least a little, the way we design.
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