Neighborhood residents describe their community's history, opportunities and constraints.

The notion of a charrette is commonly associated with the Ecole Des Beaux Arts, the world's premier architecture school during the turn of the 20th century. The term itself is derived from a French word meaning "little cart." As final designs became due at the end of the term, students would hop onto a moving cart, or charrette, sent by the instructors to gather the drawings, and hastily work to finish before the deadline.

I use the term today to describe work on a specific problem during a time-structured and participatory format. The word is used frequently to describe all manner of events where a group of people gathers to talk about a design or development issue. The charrette may be used to design and plan in the service of a private client; however, this article discusses the charrette as a tool applied in a public participatory format.

Community issues and desires are documented.

I want to clearly communicate what a charrette is not:

• It is not a workshop
• It is not a roundtable discussion
• It is not a design-oriented forum or visioning session

Though it may include one or more of the above-mentioned techniques, a design charrette is fundamentally different by definition. A design charrette includes:

• A specified length of time, usually five to seven days (sometimes more or less)
• A well-defined work program
• An intensity of effort by a multi-disciplinary team of professionals
• A definite set of completed work products

Why hold a charrette?

Neighborhood residents prioritize their community's opportunities and constraints on new construction.

A charrette is held to use time, budget and social capital effectively. A charrette's most notable use is to move a development or redevelopment project through decisive phases of design quickly and efficiently in order to achieve results in which the local community is truly interested.

A charrette, as a public design process, has two distinct advantages over other forms of public involvement. First, it becomes a forum for community collaboration and education. The community's physical, social, political and economic landscapes are simultaneously addressed and integrated into the process, and stakeholders are included at the beginning rather than at the end of the process. A charrette allows resolution among local forces by bringing together all parties that will have a role in its success before local approval hearings are scheduled.

Sometimes, even the local firehouse is used for citizen workshops.

Second, public participation allows an interactive learning process between planning professionals and the local community in a time- and cost-effective manner. When project stakeholders sit around the same table, they learn more about available choices. They weigh the costs and benefits of each, by themselves and against each other. At the same time, planners and designers learn more about the social, political and economic forces affecting local community activities. In such an environment, informed decisions can be made quickly and comprehensively, and then translated into design alternatives of which the local community has true ownership.

A charrette offers five distinct advantages as a planning tool.

1. It is an interactive, participatory event in which all stakeholders have an opportunity to think and act creatively about a specific design and development project.
2. All participants focus on the project's history, constraints and opportunities at the same time.
3. The charrette:
   • provides a timely and cost-effective forum for debate
   • clearly defines relevant design and development issues
   • structures alternative solutions
   • concludes with a graphic presentation of project designs
4. At its conclusion, stakeholders understand their role and the roles of other stakeholders in the project's implementation.
5. The charrette's public presentation, graphic images, design standards and implementation strategies provide substantial documentation for project approval, implementation and marketing.

What is involved?

Community photo boards assist in determining community character.

The charrette event itself is a highly interactive learning experience. It is a design process in which all significant stakeholders of a particular place or area are invited to participate. Within a scheduled time frame, a full range of urban issues and design alternatives are identified and discussed to achieve general consensus about a particular program. The charrette also yields a cohesive implementation agenda, as well as goals and objectives responsive to the needs of all stakeholders.

Building community consensus and making informed decisions require all the project's stakeholders to be invited to the charrette. Whether citizen, public official, developer, financier, marketer, botanist, environmentalist, teacher, engineer or design team member, all participants are valuable resources and stakeholders in the project's outcome. The more knowledge and experience they bring to the table and the more they learn about a project's dynamics, the more likely it is that the charrette will achieve desirable results.

The typical charrette sequence follows:

1. An introductory social event allows charrette sponsors to become acquainted with one another, the design team and project parameters.
2. Design team leaders present principles that underpin the planning and design process.
3. Charrette sponsors present a description of the project site, local government initiatives, urban context, history, constraints, opportunities and design work performed to date.
4. The work sessions comprise the longest and most intense phase of the charrette. The design team assimilates community development priorities into coherent design alternatives. In other words, what the community wants, the community gets. The design team produces drawings and other images that communicate a practical, attractive development strategy. Ongoing discussions explore market, finance and social issues; the physical environment, including landscape, architecture and engineering; and an implementation program, including project phasing and long-term incorporation of the project's organizing principles. At times, the design team convenes for informal "pin-ups" (work-in-progress sketches) to discuss with stakeholders the design's direction. As the presentation time approaches, more precise and rendered drawings are produced.
5. At a scheduled public presentation, charrette findings and project designs are communicated visually and verbally.
6. The charrette's conclusions are refined and published for public information. This document provides accountability for the project's implementation.

Using cut-and-paste methods, local residents plan a prototypical neighborhood.

The scheduled length of a charrette may be one day to one week, depending on the project's scope. A one-day charrette may produce design schematics for a single building. A series of charrettes, each several days in length, may produce sequentially finer-grained, more detailed plans for several interconnected building sites or, in a regional development strategy, several towns. Each project is different. Consequently, each charrette takes on a life of its own because of its unique circumstances. However, each charrette follows a consistent sequence in order to frame the creative design process.

Knowledge of a project's urban context is another exceptional resource for understanding how new construction may complement an existing community. For this reason, a charrette typically takes place on or near a site. There, participants readily experience the urban character and quality of life their designs will achieve. Designers especially find clues observing the area's physical heritage, which they can then translate into design vernacular.

Tornado in reverse

Local citizens put together a model neighborhood.

In many ways, a charrette is a creative "tornado in reverse." The event begins with a multitude of information scattered about and, with a flurry of activity, concludes in a coherent vision for a real place. The intensity of this process can be disquieting to those in the habit of sequential meetings over a long time period. And, in all fairness, the charrette process does not overcome the variety of unforeseen factors that can prevent any project from achieving full realization.

However, once experienced, few doubt a charrette's capacity to be a more exciting, cost-effective and memorable means of civic engagement and community building than conventional public processes.

Editor's note: I welcome your responses to A Tornado in Reverse and How to Conduct a Charrette, part 1. After reading these two articles, feel free to e-mail me at jason.miller@homestore.com. Give me your thoughts on the articles and tell me what was missing or what you'd like to learn more about with respect to the charrette process. I will use your feedback to generate a follow-up article, How to Conduct a Charrette, part 2.

Mike Lamb is an urban designer and Senior Associate with the architecture, engineering and planning firm of Hammel, Green, and Abrahamson, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He holds a Master of Architecture degree in urban design from the University of Colorado and is trained in architecture, urban design and urban planning. He has led or been involved in dozens of charrettes for small towns, urban redevelopment districts, re-emerging corridors and new neighborhoods. His most recent charrette experience involves the Seven Corners Gateway in St. Paul, Minnesota, which addressed preservation and redevelopment issues associated with the new arena for the Minnesota Wild hockey team.