Nowon Innovation-Type Street Vendors Targeting 70 Installations by 2026

Standard Design Guidelines for Street Vendors to Prevent Disorder and Preserve District Characteristics! Aiming for Urban Aesthetics, Pedestrian Environment, and Vendor Convenience... Final Design Confirmed After Detailed Review Since 2021... Orange & Beige Combination, Three-Sided Transparent Box for Openness, Categorized into Goods Sales, Indoor, and Outdoor Operations... Four Locations Installed So Far! Targeting 12th Installation Next Year and 70th by 2026

Perspective View of Street Vendors No. 5 and 6

Nowon-gu, Seoul (Mayor Oh Seung-rok) announced that it has finalized the standard plan for the 'Nowon Innovative Street Vendor Booths' and will begin efforts to improve urban aesthetics and business environments.

The 'Nowon Innovative Street Vendor Booths' is a standard plan for Nowon-gu street vendor booths designed to prevent disorderly expansion of street stalls and tent installations, featuring designs that harmonize with the local environment. It aims to improve urban aesthetics and pedestrian environments while facilitating maintenance convenience for street vendors.

Since 2021, the district has analyzed products sold and business environments, reviewed detailed designs, held sample exhibition briefings, design improvement meetings, and the district’s Street Vendor Coexistence Committee to gather opinions from actual operators and residents who will use the booths. After discussions and revisions, the final design was confirmed in May, and four locations are currently operating as pilot installations.

The Nowon Innovative Street Vendor Booths are decorated in orange and beige colors and are broadly categorized into ▲product sales type ▲indoor business type ▲outdoor business type. The dimensions are 2.5m wide × 1.7m deep × 2.4m high, with interiors equipped with display stands, signboards, integrated air conditioners, and partitions. Notably, three sides of the box are made of transparent material to provide openness, and the design is decided through consultation with operators within a range that does not significantly deviate from the standard size and location.

The first recipient of the Nowon Innovative Street Vendor Booth, Mr. Lee, expressed gratitude, saying, “The previous box was too narrow and cramped to operate all day, but this new box has high space utilization thanks to our input from the early design stage.” He also noted that customer discount requests have decreased, giving the impression that the booth has transformed from a cheap street stall image into a local street specialty.

This initiative is supported through the ordinance on the establishment and operation of a fund for the self-reliance support of street vendors in Nowon-gu, Seoul, and the street vendor box improvement project. So far, the first booth for photo sales (product sales type), the second for fortune-telling (indoor business type), the third for bungeoppang sales (product sales type), and the fourth for puffed rice snack sales (outdoor business type) have been installed.

The district plans to replace the fifth booth for toast sales (outdoor business type) and the sixth for fortune-telling tarot (outdoor business type) by January next year, install up to the twelfth booth by 2024, and up to the seventieth by 2026. Project participants will be selected through demand surveys and can participate under conditions agreeing to comply with regulations such as paying rent, prohibiting business expansion, and preventing facility damage.

Meanwhile, the district successfully completed an environmental improvement project around Seokgye Station last year. Seokgye Station has a high flow of people and a dense concentration of street vendor booths, but due to outdated facilities, there was a high fire risk and complaints about urban aesthetics. Since 2020, the district has established designs and basic plans for street vendor booths around Seokgye Station and promoted improvement projects through multiple negotiations with store operators. A total of 19 street vendor booths were unified with a sleek design, and pedestrian environments were improved by replacing old fences and leveling pavement blocks.

Oh Seung-rok, Mayor of Nowon-gu, said, “Through the ‘Nowon Innovative Street Vendor Booths,’ we aimed to enhance the value of our district by improving urban aesthetics, protect residents’ safety by improving pedestrian environments, and provide operators with hopeful spaces by optimizing business environments.” He added, “We will continue to do our best to produce results that satisfy everyone with Nowon’s unique attention to detail.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.