The cart of the matter: Design students have come up with trendy street vending carts

NT Features

In our country, it is a common sight to witness vegetable, fruit, and flower vendors selling their produce squatting on the road side or on manual push carts. The struggles and challenges faced by these vendors are overlooked by many. One, they have to face all kinds of weather conditions, be it rain or shine, two, they have to keep their produce exposed to pollution of all kinds and three, the carts have to be pushed manually.

Understanding the challenges faced by these vendors, three students of interior design at Vogue Institute of Art & Design have come up with a unique street vending cart design to address just these problems of these vendors.

Ishika Agarwal, Malavika Venu and Rashi Mungia, final year students, first conducted a survey to assess the problems faced by street vendors. “We found out that the challenges faced by the street vendors are primarily hygiene issues, space congestion and tiredness. Once we listed out the issues, we started working on a design which would solve each one of the issues,” says she.

The design, created on 3D by the students, depicts a cart with wheels attached to a bicycle. The cycle is attached to facilitate movement. The cart has a few deep storage compartments with lids as in the crisper section of a refrigerator for storing the produce safely. The cart also has a covered top like a canopy or an umbrella to give protection from rain or sun.

“The students were briefed to develop a sustainable model which would reduce the physical and mental exhaustion of the vendors,” explains Jayalaxmi S Baraker, Associate Professor, HOD Interior Design Department, under whose guidance the students created the design “The key to a good design is approaching the needs, and providing a viable solution for the problem of a user,” she adds.

The sketches show different ways in which a 4m pavement width can accommodate vending, with or without structures. Vending provides livelihood to millions of these vendors. With the safe cart design, the idea is for vendors to sell their produce hygienically on pavements.

“For generations, street vending carts have provided vibrancy and color in Indian cities. So, we planned this design to provide vendors with not only a colorful but comfortable means of selling vegetables and fruits,” says Ishika.