MAF breaks new ground at latest mall

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IFly is an experience of the future according to Majid Al Futtaim.

Mirdif City Centre is set to offer two major new attractions - a well-known French edutainment concept and indoor skydiving, both a first for Dubai - when it launches towards the end of 2009.

Owner Majid Al Futtaim Leisure (MAF) has teamed up with the Parisian Cite des Sciences et de l'Industrie to build its first kids edutainment facility outside France, which is called Cite des Enfants (CDE).

The concept was developed by the French museum to offer a good mix of education and entertainment for two- to seven-year-olds with a focus on learning, movement and interaction through play.

Cite des Enfants at Mirdif City Centre will offer five discovery areas, said MAF leisure and entertainment vice president Craig Hart. They are : I Discover Myself; I Can Do; I Locate Myself; I Experiment, and All Together.

Hart explained: "In I Can Do, children participate in games and experiments which can stimulate and enhance their thought processes and capacities to learn. The activities within I Can Do are Wooden machines, Animals, Balances, The Garage, Images, Lines and Letters".

Other activities in I Experiment are designed to offer an introduction to scientific and technical disciplines, I Locate Myself focuses on exploration and organising, while All Together focuses on "building social skills in a world of work," said Hart.

He said that the group intended to roll out Cite des Enfants to other new City Centres, but added: "The level of success of CDE at Mirdif City Centre will determine the future roll out of the facility to other centres".

The expanded leisure offer at Mirdif City Centre, which like other malls in the portfolio will include a Magic Planet, will also contain the IFly Skydiving Centre, which features two identical flight chambers employing the latest technology to enable visitors to float, spin and fly in three dimensions.

There are no harnesses or wires; instead the body is supported by air moving at 200-kilometres an hour.

Hart said: "IFly is an experience of the future. This unique attraction will allow visitors to feel the speed and thrill of free-fall skydiving without leaving the ground."

MAF has partnered with SkyVenture International, developer of patented wind tunnel technology in order to create IFly.

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