Pear's site research: "General occurrence among shophouses in Bangkok"

My research is focused on the generic occurrence among shophouses in Bangkok, it's one of Bangkok's very unique characters.

I divided this occurrence into two categories, Type A is where street vendors and people in shophouses are closer in both distance and relationship. Type B is more of just street vendors selling in front of the shophouse. My main concern is on the life of the street vendors whose workplaces are around the shophouses.

 

Areas marked are examples of spots with street vendors + shophouse combination

I've chosen to study two places, Soi Sitthichai and Saliratthawiphak, Saphan Kwai, both are Type A but are in a little bit different settings.

(Map Source: http://www.novabizz.com/Travel/Bangkok.htm)

More research under the cut

SOI SITTHICHAI, BANGKOK-NONTHABUI ROAD

Soi Sitthichai is one of the busiest sois among the Bangkok-Nonthaburi Road, as it has schools, many sub-sois and Suwanararam Temple inside. It has a lot of street vendors in front of the shophouses on the main road. Most of the shophouses are open air and many vendors here share spaces with the shophouse's renter.

I asked the vendors of how their life schedules go and find out that they are lacking something that normal people usually have.

First, they are very faraway from one of the most important facilities, the toilet. They are fortunately offered help by the neighbourhood with this problem. Another thing they lack is space, 6 out of 6 people I asked claimed they are fine with this because it's their job to do so.

 

I asked people of this shophouse where four different groups of people share the same shophouse. The owner lives upstairs, one group of people rented the first floor and two people each have their own carts and stay on the first floor. The first floor renters are generous enough to let the other two people use the toilet or take a nap inside the house. Without this generosity, these two would have a pretty tough working life.

Below are diagrams of these people's schedule (excluding the shophouse's owner)

PRADIPHAT AND SALIRATTHAWIPHAK ROAD, SAPHAN KWAI

 

This is another Type A occurrence but the scale is much bigger and the shophouses are more separated from the street vendors with air conditioning (walls). There are a lot more spaces usable for the street vendors which is separated from the main road which allows more street vendors to use the space. The main problem is also being faraway from public toilets but as people in the neighbourhood are quite generous, the problem is partially solved.

This leads to a conclusion that the street vendors in front of shophouses are quite satisfied with the narrow space they received but still need facilities such as toilets and possibly cart parking lots in which the design will be developed in the next project.