STREET FOOD VENDOR TROLLEY

The Priority Zone precinct was established to manage the increased facilities of the inner city around centrum and the ICC. This program has generated many creative interventions in the inner city – including the support of cardboard traders (Asiye eTafuleni NGO), food gardens, etc. Many street traders lives have been formalized by the efforts of the Priority Zone team.

Koop were commissioned to set up the PZ – REPURPOSE exhibition during COP 17 in 2011. The holistic services that PZ offer overlapped several times with the design and the installation of the exhibition. We were asked to provide a solution for the food vendors in the taxi rank on Monty Naiker as their system seemed unhygienic and cumbersome.

The vendors had a resolved cooking system – gas cookers inside boxes that provided wind protection to the flame.

Trestle tables that the food was prepared and served on

Steel trunks for the storage of equipment

Cool boxes for food.

Other boxes

The solution required a compact, robust and multifunctional trolley that could cost effectively assist in the delivery of their service – hot food to hungry passengers and drivers – el fresco. We did not want to redesign the way they work or cook. Nor did we want to challenge their method. It was important to keep them trading the way they do – just neater and cleaner.

The trolley is a robust frame of 50 x 50 x 5mm angle iron with a top, middle and bottom frame.

Shutter ply is set in the bottom and middle frame to provide shelving.

Shutter ply also closes the sides between the middle and top frame.

The top frame has 2 doors that hinge outwards opening the enclosed box of the upper level.

Push / pull handles support the open lids and serve as table top for prep and serving. When open, the box forms the wind proof enclosure for cooking that is now higher and allows the vendor to stand whilst cooking.

The open sided bottom shelf stores boxes and coolers that are accessed when necessary.

An auxiliary side table and trestles can be strapped to the closed trolley when moving from storage to serving area.

We were pleased to see the vendors decorating the trolleys with colourful plastic tablecloths.

Incidentally the day they were presented with the trolleys, the police arrived to shut them down for unhygienic trading.

They proudly pulled out their trolleys and continued trading. Perfect Timing