La Corniche d’Abu Dhabi : espace public et intimités à ciel ouvert

• Main Author: Laure Assaf
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centre Français d’Archéologie et de Sciences Sociales de Sanaa 2013-11-01
• Series: Arabian Humanities
• Subjects: Corniche; intimacy; sociability; public space
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/cy/2625

The Corniche of Abu Dhabi is one of the main places to go out or take a stroll in the capital of the United Arab Emirates. Through its multiple uses, the Corniche is a scene where diverse ways of sharing the urban space mirror the social, ethnic and economic characteristics of Emirati society. The Corniche is a public space designed and used as such, in a city where class and ethnic hierarchies prevail in daily interactions, and where the shaping of suitable territories allows for the co‑presence of the various groups inhabiting the city. The differential occupation of space on the Corniche produces a kind of intimacy which regulates interactions with others, both on an individual and collective level (through the practice of sports, or socializing with family or friends). This intimacy in the open air is one of the ways city‑dwellers can appropriate urban space in Abu Dhabi.