diff --git a/src/compiler/glsl/ir.h b/src/compiler/glsl/ir.h
index 4ef8d9a6135..f967ccb1d4b 100644
--- a/src/compiler/glsl/ir.h
+++ b/src/compiler/glsl/ir.h
@@ -51,6 +51,8 @@ struct gl_builtin_uniform_desc;
 
 #ifdef __cplusplus
 
+using float16_t = mesa::float16_t;
+
 /**
  * \defgroup IR Intermediate representation nodes
  *
diff --git a/src/util/half_float.h b/src/util/half_float.h
index fed99277d58..7254c7533b8 100644
--- a/src/util/half_float.h
+++ b/src/util/half_float.h
@@ -126,6 +126,9 @@ _mesa_half_is_negative(uint16_t h)
 
 #ifdef __cplusplus
 
+namespace mesa
+{
+
 /* Helper class for disambiguating fp16 from uint16_t in C++ overloads */
 
 struct float16_t {
@@ -137,6 +140,8 @@ struct float16_t {
    static float16_t zero() { return float16_t(FP16_ZERO); }
 };
 
+} /* namespace mesa */
+
 #endif