How can moments of crisis help reveal emergent strategies to redesign our civic infrastructures in support of some of the most precarious members of our societies?

In New York City, during moments of acute or chronic urban challenges, street vendors are uniquely positioned to fill in the gaps. When it rains, after accidents, during massive political protests, in the aftermath of natural disasters, and in underserved communities, street vendors are critical engagement points within the urban fabric. Because of their mobility and flexibility, street vendors are a flexible and wider-reaching complement to traditional fixed infrastructures. Yet, street vendors are often treated as problematic objects by business interests and policymakers.

In collaboration with Street Vendor Project in NYC, Les interstices developed a vision for the future of street vending building on the the emergent roles they were already playing in addressing urban logistical, health and safety issues in times of crisis. The mobile carts was approached as a scattered social-infrastructure in which there exists a root of strategy ready to be deployed to address public health and safety issues. The potentialities of this idea were explored as part of a series of workshops that were organized in collaboration with street vendors associations, on one side, as well as health and safety organizations, on the other.

> Read more via The Architectural League of New York's Urban Omnibus and Nouveau Projet