BankjesCollectief met Burgemeester Van der Laan - Foto door Tom Baas (1).png

Benches Collective

The world's largest open air cafe every first Sunday of the month

Context

Unfortunately, loneliness, being stuck in your own bubble and weak ties between neighbors has become more prevalent in big cities. Sidewalks, however, are used by everybody due to a strong mix in housing, and putting a bench in front of your house forms a Dutch tradition present from working class neighborhoods to the fancier parts of town.

Concept

Benches Collective is a platform that transforms public space into a meeting place for everyone. Benches are placed on the sidewalk in front of houses to form a little café for a day. All these ‘open’ benches together form the largest open-air café in the world. Often the benches remain present, creating outside living rooms throughout the streets in the city.

As a bench host you decide the opening times and what you want to do: serve a nice cup of coffee and a home baked cake, set up a marble competition or teach dancing lessons. At your benches you’ll start to meet all your neighbours from students and young families to chatty granny’s and playful kids.

Benches Collective turned into an international movement that makes it easy for people to (re)connect to the people you share your sidewalk with.

Results

Over 3200 people opened 1600 benches in 24 countries that were visited by over 25000 people. The initiative additionally reached over 2.5 million in media value.

In Amsterdam alone…