mapping street vending reveals 78 metropolitan typologies across india Laari Futures emerges from Chaal Agency’s research task, Atlas of (In)Consistent Infrastructures, which documented 78 street vending typologies throughout 12 Indian cities through maps and illustrations. The research recognized the vending cart as more than a vehicle or display screen surface area, showing how it structures vendor occupation of the street, shapes client interaction, and forms a short-term industrial edge within daily city area.
Building on this body of work, the style procedure reviews existing vending typologies to explore how their ingrained logic can be extended without fixing or over-formalising them. This technique caused a community engagement process with ladies vendors from the Sathwara group in Bhuj, structured through co-mapping, co-design, and consensus-based advancement.
Throughout this process, it was observed that vendors often rent the cart itself and pay independently for shade and lighting. When these extra expenses end up being unaffordable, vending is sometimes performed straight from the street surface. The cart for that reason operates not only as a work tool, however also as part of a repeating operating expense that impacts the economic stability of vending households.
Gita Ben is establishing Peti Laari in the market of Ahmedabad, India|all images thanks to Chaal Firm
mobile
infrastructure shaped by daily metropolitan conditions The initial outcomes of the task
by Chaal Firm, Nano, Vachlo, and Slogan, form a system of cart typologies that reassess navigation, seating, shade, storage, and multi-level display. These models extend the cart into a spatial device that structures relations between vendor, goods, consumers, and street edge, without needing fixed building. With support from the Ammodo Architecture Award for Regional Scale, the job expands into
fresh produce vending and the combination of small innovations. Solar energy systems are presented to power motorised misting systems for produce preservation, minimizing losses connected to heat exposure. The very same system likewise supports lighting, phone charging, and fans to improve working conditions throughout the day. Laari Futures does not place innovation as an aesthetic feature, nor does it treat the vending cart as a challenge be formalised. Instead, it
puts easy infrastructure at the scale of everyday usage, intending to return time, comfort, and capability to suppliers while maintaining the mobility of the laari. The task proposes a kind of urban infrastructure that stays mobile, durable, and carefully lined up with the spatial conditions of street life. Kami ben selling veggies from the Peti Laari in her residential area
Gita Ben selling veggies in the market
taking the carts home