Elevating Informality: Street Vending, Design Politics, and the Remaking of Public Space in Bandung

Teras Cihempelas, an elevated pedestrian walkway in Bandung, Indonesia, presents a unique case of integrating informal street vending into formal urban infrastructure. Designed under former mayor and architect Ridwan Kamil, this project sought to both accommodate and regulate informal traders while enhancing public life in a dense, urban fabric. Unlike conventional pedestrianisation efforts, Teras Cihempelas spatially segregates vendors from the street, creating an urban spectacle that blends informal livelihoods with a curated experience of public space. This article critically examines the design, politics, and socio‐economic impacts of Teras Cihempelas, exploring how it reflects broader tensions between modernisation, post‐colonial urbanism, and gentrification. The study adopts a longitudinal narrative research approach, drawing on field observations (2015, 2017, 2019, 2025), analyses of municipal documents, and local and national media coverage, supplemented with review‐based evidence to trace user and vendor experiences. This allows for a reconstruction of how the project has evolved across nearly a decade of changing leadership, urban policy, and vendor practices, and how they impacted public life. The article situates Teras Cihempelas within global trends of urban informality management, in line with Bangkok’s vendor “reorganisations” and the aestheticisation of public space seen in projects like New York’s High Line. This study asks how the design, implementation, and evolution of Teras Cihempelas reveal the politics of formalising informality in Bandung; how vendors, visitors, and officials experienced and responded to the project; in what ways Teras Cihempelas reflects both the potentials and contradictions of reconfiguring streets as platforms of public life; and what broader lessons it offers for design‐led approaches to managing informality in rapidly urbanising contexts. Despite its ambition to legitimise street vending, the project ultimately reveals the complexities of formalising informality and the ongoing struggle for inclusive post‐Covid urban spaces. The findings contribute to discussions on how cities can balance economic integration, urban design, and the right to the street in evolving urban landscapes.