Artistic public benches to foster community bonding in Dubai
Prototypes of seven creative benches to be displayed at Dubai Mall store during Ramadan
Public benches — in a creatively designed modern form — are set to be fixed across public spaces in Dubai under an initiative called Yalsatna, which means ‘our seating’ in Arabic.
This announcement was made yesterday as prototypes of these benches were unveiled at the Ramadan windows of Bloomingdale’s store in The Dubai Mall.
Yalsatna is the brainchild of Budoor Saeed Al Raqbani, founder and director of Kalimati Communication and Rehabilitation Centre.
Bloomingdale’s has partnered with her to support the community initiative under the patronage of the Community Development Authority (CDA).
The launch of the pilot phase of the project attended by Ahmad Abdul Karim Julfar, director-general of CDA, and other officials saw seven designs of the benches being unveiled in seven dedicated Ramadan-themed windows at Bloomingdale’s.
The benches will be displayed throughout Ramadan to familiarise residents with the design and concept of the benches that will be fixed in the public areas in the next phase of the project. The partners are in talks with various organisations to finalise the fixing of real benches in the seven designs at various locations.
Saeed Al Tayer, CEO, planning and social development sector in the CDA, said that the Yalsatna initiative has identified seven sectors that are important to the community members. They are transportation, culture and heritage, social, sport, education, the determined ones [people with special needs] and multimedia. The vision of Yalsatna is to promote the importance of “sitting together” as a modern strategy for social communication, in this fast paced, predominantly digital world, through the design and installation of benches in public spaces all over Dubai, said founder and director of Kalimati Communication and Rehabilitation Centre.
“In Arabian culture, the majlis has always served as the focal point for societal development and engagement. Nowadays, fast-paced life leaves little time for communities to come together and appreciate its beautiful surroundings,” she said, adding that the aim of the Yalsatna initiative is to creatively use art to address a social issue.
“We want to make these benches a means to communicate, understand each other and not be frightened by the differences we have … Also to have empathy with people with special needs rather than having sympathy with them,” she said.
She said the benches are expected to be a platform that encourages people of different walks of life and unknown to each other to sit together and strike a conversation, understand, learn from and be inspired by one another.
Shaikha community development expert at CDA, said the art works have represented a lot of social inclusion at many levels. “It is a first-of-its-kind social art initiative here and probably in the Middle East … This goes very much with the Year of Giving and CDA’s new direction of inclusion and cohesion of the society in Dubai.”
Budoor Saeed Al Raqbani (left), Dr Alia Humaid Al Qasimi (right),