Re-inventing the Cart Wheel

Okay, okay - street vending didn't start with a lemonade stand.

I am grateful to the National Charrette Institute for explaining the meaning and origins of the word "charrette". While being French for "cart", it also can mean the final deadline beating efforts of architecture students, referring as it does to the cart sent around in 19th century schools to collect final drawings.

So it is apt that the design competition (charrette, as it were) to herald in the new street vending regulations be of a - street vending cart!

As part of the Street Food Vending Project, Multistory Complex, in partnership with Professor Lorella Di Cintio of Ryerson University, Faculty of Communication and Design, has convened a Vending Cart Design Competition for Toronto street food vending carts.

The jury is presently evaluating the submissions and the results and prizes will be announced at the 2007 Food Festival, styled Arts and Ideas Festival - FOOD - Local meets Global, presented by Alphabet City. The research on street vending will also be published in Alphabet City's FOOD anthology, due out in October, 2007

Extremely helpful to anyone who has entered the competition are two video webcasts of Snack Chats (hosted by Multistory Complex and Ryerson University), called The Designing of a Vending Cart and the Vendor’s Experiences and The Role of Street Food and Vending in the City.