MOST Monti Studio converts abandoned building into ITA's Dakar HQ

An abandoned building inside the Italian Embassy complex in Dakar, Senegal, is now the headquarters of ITA, the Italian Trade Agency. MOST Monti Studio, with lead architect Mirco Monti, completed the 150-square-metre conversion in 2025. Andrea Martiradonna photographed the project.

The client agency promotes Italian businesses abroad and supports their internationalization. Rather than commissioning a new office building in the city centre, ITA chose rehabilitation.

The architects describe the decision as deliberate. In their project text, they frame the work as "more than a simple functional conversion": the project "embraces reuse as an architectural and cultural choice, proposing an alternative to the construction of an entirely new office building in the city centre."

What does the rehabilitation replace?

The project stands in for demolition-and-new-build. An existing structure, previously abandoned, now carries a diplomatic-trade function within the embassy compound. The reuse strategy avoids adding a new office block to central Dakar while returning a vacant building to service.

Who delivered the project?

• Architects: MOST Monti Studio
• Lead architect: Mirco Monti
• Area: 150 m²
• Year: 2025
• Location: Italian Embassy complex, Dakar, Senegal
• Client function: ITA — Italian Trade Agency, promoting Italian business abroad
• Photographs: Andrea Martiradonna

Why does reuse carry weight here?

The architects position the intervention as a cultural argument, not only a logistical one. By rehabilitating rather than replacing, the studio presents adaptive reuse as a model for institutional clients weighing new construction against existing stock.

For ITA, an agency whose mandate depends on international presence, the headquarters doubles as a demonstration: an Italian institution practising the circular approach its design culture increasingly advocates, on foreign diplomatic ground.