design charrette presentation

10 Steps to a Successful Design Charrette: A Practical Guide

1. define the project scope, 2. assemble the right team, 3. choose the ideal location, 4. prepare the team, 5. create a detailed agenda, 6. facilitate effective communication, 7. use the right design tools, 8. encourage collaboration, 9. review and refine the design, 10. present and document the results.

Design charrettes are dynamic, collaborative workshops that bring together diverse participants to brainstorm and develop innovative solutions for complex design challenges. In this practical guide, we'll walk through 10 simple steps to help you plan and execute a successful design charrette that delivers outstanding results.

Before diving into the design charrette, it's crucial to clearly define the project scope. This will help you and your team stay focused and ensure that everyone is on the same page. Here's what you need to do:

• Identify the problem: Clearly articulate the design challenge you're trying to address.
• Set objectives: Determine specific goals you want to achieve with the design charrette.
• Establish boundaries: Identify any constraints, such as budget, timeline, or resources, that could impact your design charrette.
• Clarify expectations: Make sure all participants understand their roles and responsibilities during the design charrette.

By defining the project scope, you'll set the stage for a productive and focused design charrette, ensuring that your team can efficiently collaborate and develop creative solutions.

Assembling the right team is a key factor in the success of your design charrette. A diverse group of participants with varied expertise will bring fresh perspectives and ideas to the table. Here's how to build a well-rounded team:

• Include multiple disciplines: Invite professionals from different fields, such as architects, engineers, designers, planners, and stakeholders, to ensure a holistic approach to problem-solving.
• Value experience: Select team members who have experience with similar projects or challenges, as they can share valuable insights and lessons learned.
• Encourage creativity: Look for individuals who are open-minded, adaptable, and comfortable with exploring new ideas.
• Consider group dynamics: Build a team that can work well together, fostering a positive and collaborative atmosphere throughout the design charrette.

By assembling a diverse and skilled team, you'll create an environment where ideas can flourish and innovative solutions can emerge during the design charrette.

Choosing the ideal location for your design charrette can have a significant impact on its success. The right space can inspire creativity, encourage collaboration, and keep participants focused. Consider the following factors when selecting a location:

• Accessibility: Ensure the location is easy to reach for all participants, with convenient transportation options and nearby amenities.
• Space flexibility: Look for a venue that offers different types of spaces, such as open areas for group work, quiet spaces for individual tasks, and meeting rooms for presentations.
• Natural light: A well-lit space with plenty of natural light can boost the energy and creativity of the team.
• Inspiring surroundings: Opt for a location that reflects the project's context or offers a unique atmosphere, such as a historic building, a park, or a cultural hub.
• Technology and resources: Choose a venue with reliable internet access, ample power outlets, and any necessary equipment, such as projectors or whiteboards.

By selecting an inspiring and functional location, you'll set the stage for a productive and successful design charrette.

Preparing your team for the design charrette is essential to achieve the best results. A well-prepared team will be more efficient, focused, and collaborative. Here are some steps you can take to prepare your team:

• Clarify roles and responsibilities: Make sure every team member understands their role and the tasks they're responsible for during the charrette. This will help avoid confusion and ensure everyone is on the same page.
• Provide background information: Share relevant information about the project, such as site context, goals, and constraints, with the team before the charrette. This will help them come prepared with ideas and solutions.
• Set expectations: Clearly communicate the objectives of the design charrette and what you hope to accomplish by the end of the process. This will help keep the team focused and motivated.
• Encourage open communication: Foster an environment where team members feel comfortable sharing their ideas, asking questions, and providing feedback. This will lead to more innovative and well-rounded solutions.
• Offer training: If your design charrette involves specific tools or techniques, provide training sessions before the event to ensure everyone is familiar with them.

With a well-prepared team, your design charrette is more likely to generate creative, effective, and feasible solutions.

Creating a detailed agenda is a key step in organizing a successful design charrette. A clear and structured agenda will keep your team on track, ensure all important topics are covered, and help maintain a smooth workflow. Here are some tips for creating a comprehensive agenda:

• Establish timeframes: Allocate specific time slots for each activity and discussion during the charrette. This will help maintain a steady pace and ensure that your team stays focused on the task at hand.
• Break down tasks: Divide larger tasks into smaller, manageable steps. This makes it easier for your team to work through complex problems and ensures that every aspect of the project is addressed.
• Include breaks and refreshments: Schedule regular breaks and provide refreshments to keep your team energized and engaged. A well-rested team is more likely to generate innovative ideas and stay focused on the project.
• Assign roles: Clearly designate who will be responsible for leading discussions, presenting ideas, and facilitating activities. This will help streamline the process and ensure that all team members understand their responsibilities.
• Plan for presentations and reviews: Include time in the agenda for your team to present their work and receive feedback from other team members. This will help refine ideas and ensure that the final design is well-rounded and addresses all aspects of the project.

By creating a detailed agenda, you'll be setting your design charrette up for success and ensuring that your team can efficiently work towards creating the best possible solution for your project.

Effective communication is vital for a successful design charrette. When team members are able to express their ideas clearly and listen to others, it fosters collaboration and generates more innovative solutions. Here are some strategies to facilitate effective communication during your design charrette:

• Set ground rules: Establish clear guidelines for how team members should communicate during discussions and activities. Encourage active listening, open-mindedness, and respectful feedback.
• Encourage participation: Create an inclusive environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing their ideas and opinions. Make sure to involve all team members in discussions and give them equal opportunities to contribute.
• Clarify ideas: When presenting an idea or responding to feedback, encourage team members to elaborate on their thoughts and provide clear explanations. This will help ensure that everyone understands the concept and can contribute meaningfully to the discussion.
• Use visual aids: Incorporate sketches, diagrams, or other visual aids to help convey ideas more effectively. Visuals can make complex concepts easier to grasp and can spark new ideas among team members.
• Summarize discussions: At the end of each discussion or activity, take a moment to summarize the key points and decisions made. This will help solidify the team's understanding of the project and ensure that everyone is on the same page.

By facilitating effective communication, you'll create a more collaborative and productive environment during your design charrette, ultimately leading to better results for your project.

Choosing the right design tools can make a significant difference in the efficiency, effectiveness, and overall success of your design charrette. The right tools can help your team to visualize ideas, collaborate, and refine concepts more quickly. Here are some design tools that can be helpful during a design charrette:

• Sketch pads and drawing materials: Provide team members with sketch pads, pencils, pens, markers, and other drawing materials to encourage quick, freehand sketching of ideas.
• Whiteboards and markers: Whiteboards are excellent tools for brainstorming, mapping out ideas, and making quick adjustments as the design evolves. They also allow the entire team to see and contribute to the development of concepts.
• Sticky notes: Sticky notes are an easy way for team members to jot down ideas, questions, or comments and then arrange them on a board or wall for everyone to see. This can help facilitate group discussions and decision-making processes.
• Physical or digital models: Depending on the project, having physical or digital models can help your team better understand the design's context and spatial relationships. For example, architectural projects might benefit from 3D printed models, while digital projects could use mock-ups or wireframes.
• Collaborative software: Collaborative software, such as Google Docs, Miro, or Figma, allows team members to work together on documents, diagrams, or designs in real-time, even if they're not in the same location.

By providing your team with the right design tools during your design charrette, you can foster creativity, collaboration, and efficiency, leading to more successful outcomes for your project.

One of the main goals of a design charrette is to bring together diverse perspectives and expertise to work collaboratively on a project. Encouraging collaboration among your team members is essential for achieving the best possible results. Here are some tips for fostering a collaborative environment during your design charrette:

• Set clear expectations: At the beginning of the charrette, explain the importance of working together and listening to each other's ideas. Emphasize that everyone's input is valuable and should be respected.
• Establish guidelines for discussion: Create guidelines for how discussions should be conducted, such as giving each team member a chance to speak, listening without interrupting, and asking clarifying questions. This helps avoid misunderstandings and ensures everyone feels heard.
• Assign roles and responsibilities: Give each team member a specific role or task based on their expertise or interests. This helps to distribute the workload and encourages collaboration by making it clear that everyone's contribution is needed.
• Facilitate group activities: Incorporate group activities, such as brainstorming sessions or design critiques, into your agenda to encourage team members to share their ideas and feedback with one another.
• Provide opportunities for informal interaction: Allocate time for breaks and informal conversations, as these can help to build rapport and trust among team members, making it easier for them to work together effectively.

Promoting a collaborative atmosphere during your design charrette will not only lead to better outcomes for your project but also create a more enjoyable and rewarding experience for everyone involved.

Once your team has worked together to develop ideas and create design solutions, it's time to review and refine the results. This process helps to ensure that the design aligns with the project goals and meets the needs of your stakeholders. Here are some steps to follow when reviewing and refining the design during a design charrette:

• Evaluate against the project scope: Compare the design solutions to the original project scope and objectives. Does the design address the key challenges and requirements? If not, identify areas for improvement and make adjustments accordingly.
• Seek feedback from stakeholders: Present the design concepts to stakeholders and gather their input. Encourage open and honest feedback to help identify areas where the design might be improved or better aligned with stakeholder needs.
• Consider different perspectives: Encourage team members to share their thoughts and concerns about the design, taking into account their unique areas of expertise. This can help to uncover potential issues or opportunities for improvement that may not have been considered initially.
• Iterate and revise: Based on the feedback received, make necessary revisions to the design. This may involve reworking certain elements, exploring alternative solutions, or refining details to better meet the project goals.
• Document changes and decisions: As you make revisions to the design, be sure to document the changes and the rationale behind them. This will provide a clear record of the design process and help to ensure that everyone is on the same page moving forward.

By taking the time to review and refine the design during your design charrette, you can ensure that your project is on track to achieve its goals and create a solution that meets the needs of all stakeholders involved.

After refining the design, it's important to present and document the results of the design charrette. Sharing the outcomes with stakeholders, team members, and any other relevant parties will help to ensure that everyone is on the same page and understands the next steps in the project. Here's how to effectively present and document the results of your design charrette:

• Organize the final presentation: Compile all the design concepts, revisions, and feedback into a cohesive and comprehensive presentation. This should include visuals, such as sketches or renderings, as well as explanations of the design decisions and how they align with the project scope and goals.
• Involve the entire team: During the presentation, allow each team member to speak about their contributions and the rationale behind their design choices. This not only showcases the collaborative nature of the design charrette but also helps to provide a well-rounded understanding of the project.
• Address stakeholder concerns: Be prepared to answer any questions or address concerns that stakeholders may have about the design. Offer explanations and, if necessary, discuss potential adjustments that can be made to better meet their needs.
• Document the process: Create a detailed report that outlines the entire design charrette process, from the initial project scope to the final design concepts. This should include a summary of the feedback received, decisions made, and any revisions that were implemented.
• Establish next steps: Clearly communicate the next steps in the project, including any additional design work, approvals, or implementation plans. This will help to ensure that everyone is on the same page and understands their role in moving the project forward.

By presenting and documenting the results of your design charrette, you can demonstrate the value of this collaborative process and set the stage for a successful project outcome. With clear communication and thorough documentation, you'll be well-equipped to take your project to the next level.

If you've found this blog helpful and want to dive deeper into the world of design, we highly recommend checking out Benjamin Thomson's workshop, ' How to Respond to a Design Brief '. This workshop will provide you with essential tips and techniques for effectively interpreting and responding to design briefs, ensuring your projects meet the expectations of your clients.

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Planning and Conducting Integrated Design (ID) Charrettes  

by Joel Ann Todd, Environmental Consultant, and Gail Lindsey, FAIA, Principal Design Harmony

Within This Page

Introduction, description, application, emerging issues, additional resources.

Process is critical to successful, balanced designs; and a key step in the design process is an integrated design charrette. In this Resource Page, a charrette is defined as an intensive workshop in which various stakeholders and experts are brought together to address a particular design issue, from a single building to an entire campus, installation, or park. The term can also be applied to shorter, focused project team meetings, project planning meetings, brainstorming sessions, and extensive community visioning events.

A charrette can be the mechanism that starts the communication process among the project team members, building (or campus) users, and project management staff. As such, it is important that all relevant decision makers attend. Furthermore, a charrette can be viewed as a creative burst of energy that builds momentum for a project and sets it on a course to meet project goals. It can transform a project from a static, complex problem to a successful, buildable plan. Usually, it is an intensely focused, multi-day session that uses a collaborative approach to create realistic and achievable design ideas that respond successfully to the issues at hand.

Participants in the charrette work groups discuss the project's environmental priorities using the LEED® Green Building Rating System. Charrette for Southface New Office Building. Photo Credit: Paul Torcellini

Charrette work groups work at round tables in a large meeting room—note the flip chart pages taped to the walls. San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park Greening Charrrette. Photo Credit: Joel Todd

Charrettes have been used by planning and design teams for many years. Approximately 15 years ago, sustainability issues were added to the topics emphasized during charrette sessions. Three highly visible and successful charrettes held in the early 1990s—the Greening of the White House, the Greening of the Grand Canyon, and the Greening of the Pentagon—focused attention on the use of charrettes as part of an integrated design process with a focus on sustainability. Nowadays, numerous federal, state, and local government agencies, military bases and installations, nonprofits, and private-sector owners use the charrette process for integrated, 'whole building', design issues, as well as specific focuses like sustainability and security . For more information on the 'whole building' approach, see WBDG Whole Building Design .

As experience in conducting charrettes has grown, "lessons learned" have been gathered into a handbook to assist others in planning and conducting these events. This handbook, A Handbook for Planning and Conducting Charrettes for High-Performance Projects   , contains detailed checklists and tips, along with a step-by-step process for planning, implementing, and following-up on the charrette. This process is summarized in this Resource Page.

A. Purposes and Benefits of Integrated Design (ID) Charrettes

Integrated, or 'whole building', charrettes establish a creative environment for identifying and incorporating strategies that result in projects that are designed and built to minimize resource consumption, reduce life-cycle costs, and maximize health and environmental performance across a wide range of measures—from indoor air quality (IAQ) to habitat protection—while also meeting expectations for security , accessibility , aesthetics , historic preservation , and other design objectives . There are many benefits of using charrettes early in the design process. Most importantly, charrettes can save time and money while improving project performance. In general, integrated design (ID) charrettes:

• Provide a forum for planning the project with those who can influence design decisions to make sure early decisions avoid missteps—it is easier to set a course than to change it.
• Provide an opportunity for lessons learned from previous projects to inform the planning process.
• Kick off the design process.
• Encourage agreement on project goals.
• Save time and money by collaborating on ideas, issues, and concerns early in the design process to help avoid later iterative redesign activities.
• Promote "collective enthusiasm" for a project with early realistic goals and directions.

Conducting an ID charrette early in the design/decision-making process will:

• Establish a multidisciplinary team that can set and agree on common project goals. See also WBDG Design Disciplines for information on the roles and responsibilities of each design discipline in the 'whole building' design process.
• Develop early consensus on project design priorities.
• Generate early expectations or quantifiable metrics for final energy and environmental outcomes.
• Provide early understanding of the potential impact of various design strategies.
• Initiate a design process to reduce project costs and schedules, and obtain the best energy and environmental performance.
• Identify project strategies for exploration with their associated costs, time constraints, and the needed expertise to eliminate costly "surprises" later in the design and construction processes.
• Identify partners, available grants, and potential collaborations that can provide expertise, funding, credibility, and support to the project.
• Set a project schedule and budget that all team members feel comfortable following.

Conducting regular follow-up and feedback as the project progresses after the ID charrette can:

• Ensure that the team continues to work together toward attaining their shared goals.
• Provide opportunities for discussion of more specific alternatives.
• Ensure continual involvement of the initial core participants.

B. Key Issues in Planning and Implementing an ID Charrette

Before you begin to organize your charrette, you must be clear about your goals for the event – what do you hope to achieve.

Expectations can include:

• Consensus on project goals
• Identification of realistic strategies and designs for the project
• Consensus on time frames and champions associated with goals
• Ideas of potential partners and funding sources for a project
• Shared information and "lessons learned" from experts

Once your goals are clear, you should ask a few questions to make sure your charrette will be most effective: (If you can answer yes to these questions, you are ready to proceed.)

• For a building, is the project program developed? See WBDG Architectural Programming . Do you know what functions are to be performed, needs of occupants, special requirements? Has the site been selected or narrowed to a few possibilities? (It is best to hold the charrette during the project planning cycle if possible, once the project team is in place.)
• For large-scale projects, such as campuses, military bases, or other developments, are issues to be addressed in the charrette well defined? These issues could include overall master planning, transportation, facilities construction or renovation, operations and maintenance, green procurement and contracting, and education and outreach.
• Are there staff or volunteers and resources to support the event?
• Is there an overall organizer, or "facilitator," to lead the effort?

To Be Most Effective and Efficient in Planning a Charrette, Include the Following Activities:

Note: The schedule and process outlined below are designed for a charrette that will include outside stakeholders, partners, and experts as well as the project team; a smaller charrette for the project team only would require less time and the process will be simpler.

1. At least 3 months before the event...

• Create a Steering Committee: The first step in planning and organizing a charrette is to set up a steering committee. The purpose of the steering committee is to guide the charrette planning process and ensure support from key individuals and organizations. Discussing the charrette objectives and logistical issues with several enthusiastic and dedicated people will stimulate the generation of ideas and make the charrette a more successful event. A small group of five to eight individuals working closely together will enhance the efficiency of the charrette planning process. In general, everyone who will be involved in making the charrette happen, including logistical support, should be included.
• Date and location for the charrette
• Purpose of the charrette
• Products resulting from the charrette
• Agenda for the charrette
• Resources needed to help cover or defray costs of the charrette
• Participants to invite to the charrette
• Speakers to provide the desired motivation and expertise during the charrette
• Facilitators to lead the charrette and breakout groups
• Partners to supply resources and/or buy into the charrette process and its results
• Project information for charrette participants
• Date, time, and logistics of the next steering committee meeting.

Charrette work group participants work with the facilitator to capture ideas on flip chart. Charrette for the University of North Carolina Science Building. Photo Credit: Gail Lindsey, FAIA

2. Two to three months before the event...

Develop an Agenda: The agenda should include welcome and introductions, opportunities for VIPs to welcome the group and state support of goals, an overview of the project and goals for the charrette, presentations by experts to support the work to be done, and facilitated small groups with carefully crafted report-out sessions.

Confirm Availability of Key Event Players: Key players will include an overall facilitator for the event, facilitators for small work groups, VIPs to lend credibility and support to the event, experts to serve as resources for the work groups and to make brief presentations to the whole group, and most critically-participants.

Finalize Speaker List and Provide Presentation Guidelines: Give speakers clear guidance including length of their talk, purpose, level, and intended content. Plan enough time so that you can review a draft of each speaker's presentation prior to the charrette to ensure that each talk is on target and can be done in the time allotted.

Invite Participants and Track Responses: Participants should include the project team, building or campus users, other stakeholders and partners, and other specific people or organizations related to the project. Include those responsible for security, accessibility, aesthetics, historic preservation (if applicable), and other concerns. Invite decision makers, those who can commit to action during the charrette. A group of 25 to 50 is ideal; more than 50 is unwieldy and fewer than 25 reduces the number of work groups that can be established. Send a "Save the Date" card to potential participants as soon as the date is chosen, then send invitations when the agenda and other logistics are final. Consider developing and sending out a preliminary questionnaire for completion and submission prior to the charrette. The preliminary questionnaire can cover many time-consuming issues, allowing for more time to focus on critical issues identified in the questionnaire during the actual charrette.

• Mailings (flyers, e-mails, invitation letters)
• Charrette materials and reproduction (including pre-design energy analysis)
• Speakers' and facilitators' time and travel
• Staffing support for the event, including photographers and writers
• Facility rental
• Audiovisual (AV) equipment
• Internet connection at the facility (optional)
• Final charrette report and follow-up with participants.

Funding for participation in the charrette should be included in contractor budgets, if possible.

Make Logistical Arrangements: Logistical arrangements will include a facility for the event, food, staffing, equipment and supplies, signs, name badges, and exhibits of local green building businesses (optional).

Assemble Participant and Resource Materials: All material for participant packets should be identified and collected for assembly and distribution (materials could include agenda, participant list, copies of the presentations, project information, and other pertinent resource materials). Other resource materials that would be beneficial to participants during the charrette should be identified (materials could include books, computer programs; and project site materials such as aerial photos, topographic plans, hydrology drawings, wind roses, existing vegetation); and steering members should determine how these resources will be made available to participants during the charrette.

Develop Evaluation Forms: Charrette feedback is essential. Determine feedback needed that would help the project and similar future efforts and create a form that could be given to participants at the charrette. Usually one page (front and back) should be adequate. (Leave room at the end for open feedback.)

To Be Most Effective and Efficient in Conducting a Charrette, Include the Following Activities:

1. The day before the event...

Visit the Facility: Before the event, double check everything at the facility - especially audio-visual equipment, lighting, and if applicable, security measures at the facility.

Check Supplies and Participant Materials: The day before the event, check charrette supplies (flip charts, markers, tape, name badges, drawing supplies if needed, etc.); review all participant packets (check that all have the appropriate materials and are complete packets). If other resources have been delivered, check those and determine how they will be made available to participants (resource table, computer access, etc.).

Meet with the Facilitator and the Speakers: Meet with facilitators and speakers to make sure everyone understands their roles, the schedule, and the ultimate goals for the day. Load all speaker presentations on a single laptop to prevent pauses between speakers. Make sure the recorder(s) understand the types of notes to take and assign him/her responsibility for organizing and collecting all chart paper at the end of the event.

2. The day of the event...

• Verify Logistical Arrangements: Check the room for audio, lighting, seating arrangements, and tables for resource materials. Rearrange seating and other elements as necessary. Determine the most effective room layout for presentations as well as break-out groups (sometimes additional rooms are desired for break-out groups but a single room allows the larger group to feel "connected" if the noise is not too great). Also, check on food that may be part of the room logistics.

Sign-in desk with participant sign-in sheet, name badges, participant notebooks, and participant "mugs" (no styrofoam cups!). Bandelier National Park Greening Charrette. Photo Credit: Joel Todd

Don Neubacher, Point Reyes Superintendent, welcomes charrette participants and "sets the stage" for the critical park issues as well as the global environmental issues. (Welcoming remarks by a top project team member is extremely helpful for charrette "buy-in".) Point Reyes National Seashore Greening Charrette. Photos Credit: Joel Todd

Set the Stage with the opening sessions and describe project and charrette expectations: In the opening sessions, make sure the goals and expectations for the event are clear to participants. A welcome from a "top level project team member" endorsing the charrette and sharing project goals is extremely helpful.

• No criticism of ideas or people
• Respect everyone's time
• All ideas are good
• Everyone participates
• Final decisions are consensus based
• No cell phones
• One conversation at a time

Arrange for a Site Visit, if Applicable: A site visit allows charrette participants to understand site opportunities and challenges, which will be taken into account when alternatives are developed during the charrette.

Create Effective Breakout Groups: During the charrette, use tested practices, including designated facilitators, to ensure effective breakout groups. Allow the groups to interact during their working sessions - "cross-pollination" is a source of new ideas. Breakout groups are most effective if there are 6-8 members in a group. (However, groups of 3-10 can be effective.)

Implement Successful Charrette Practices: Allow plenty of time for reporting out and discussion of various ideas. Also, allow for clear concise wrap-up and next steps - especially helpful are "last thoughts and insights" from a top level team member to catalyze the group to reach their charrette project goals.

Charrette work group participants discuss "Charrette Focus" issues as defined by the Steering Committee. Charrette for Southface New Office Building. Photo Credit: Gail Lindsey, FAIA

Leader for one of the charrette work groups "reports out" on the environmental goals, strategies, and concepts for the new office building for Southface. Charrette for Southface New Office Building. Photo Credit: Gail Lindsey, FAIA

To Be Most Effective and Efficient in the Follow-Up After a Charrette, Include the Following Activities:

1. Within a month following the charrette...

Hold a Debriefing Meeting: At a minimum, the charrette steering committee should hold a debriefing meeting to discuss "next steps" after the event and feedback from the evaluation forms. A schedule for further feedback and updates could be discussed.

Prepare a Report on the Results: An immediate, short (1–2 page) executive summary with photos is an excellent tool to "spread the word" about the charrette - both the process as well as the top priority issues and goals set during the charrette. In addition, a longer charrette report (25-35 pages) could describe the action items, team members, visions, etc. of the charrette. Both reports are extremely useful for longer term use.

Follow up with Participants: Provide participants with the follow up reports, especially the executive summary, and thank them for their participation. Let participants know how they can stay involved.

Encourage the Participants to Stay Involved: Some of the participants will, no doubt, be champions of specific goals and should be involved at a minimum until the goals are met. It would be beneficial to have the steering committee discuss ways to encourage connection and long-term interaction with the charrette participants (in-person meetings, website, newsletter, etc.).

Analyze and Summarize the Evaluations: Feedback is critical for ongoing improvement. Review the evaluation forms given at the charrette and analyze the feedback. Follow-up calls or e-mails may be useful as well.

Evaluate the Value of Follow-on Events: Certain project issues, strategies, partnerships, or ideas may have been generated during the charrette that may warrant follow-on events (such as "mini-charrettes" for green materials, energy modeling and daylighting strategies, and/or water reduction considerations). Find high priority issues and determine the value of follow-on efforts.

The most effective approach to planning for and understanding potential outcomes of a charrette is to view reports from other diverse charrettes. The following charrette reports are available in Appendix J of A Handbook for Planning and Conducting Charrettes for High-Performance Projects   .

• Boston National Historic Park Greening Charrette
• UNC - Asheville Greening Charrette
• Greenprints Charrette, Southface Energy Institute
• NCSU High Performance Charrette College of Design
• Simon Fraser UniverCity Charrettes

Three other charrette reports are listed below:

• Eastern Carolina University New Dormitory Building  
• Naval Support Activity Mid-South Base  
• Southface Energy Institute New Office Building  

Charrette work groups use a graphic by The Grove Consultants International to visually capture short, mid, and long term action items, success factors, visions, etc. An example of the resultant graphic is shown below. Photo Credit: ENSAR Group, Inc.

Image Credit: ENSAR Group, Inc.

There are several interesting emerging trends in ID Charrettes:

• First, sponsors are expanding the scope in terms of topics addressed and stakeholders/ participants. These charrettes might explore in greater depth topics such as the history and social fabric of the surrounding community and the hydrogeology and natural history of the area, with local community representatives participating.
• Second, others are using charrettes to address issues beyond buildings. For example, the National Park Service, the U.S. military services, and many university campuses are holding charrettes to develop plans for entire parks, base installations, or university campus operations relating to sustainability.
• Finally, many project teams are recognizing that charrettes should be part of an ongoing process, not one-time events.

Organizations

• National Charrette Institute (NCI)
• U.S. Green Building Council, LEED® Green Building Rating systems

Publications

• A Handbook for Planning and Conducting Charrettes for High-Performance Projects   by Gail Lindsey, Joel Ann Todd, and Sheila J. Hayter, National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
• PBS-P100 Facilities Standards for the Public Buildings Service
• Integration at Its Finest: Success in High-Performance Building Design and Project Delivery in the Federal Sector by Renée Cheng, AIA, Professor, School of Architecture, University of Minnesota. Sponsored by the Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings, U.S. General Services Administration, 2014. 
• Federal Bureau of Prisons  
• Institute of American Indian Art Sustainable Futures Initiative  
• Bandelier National Monument  
• Big Cypress National Preserve  
• Boston National Historic Park  
• C&O Canal National Historic Park  
• Canaveral National Seashore  
• Grand Canyon National Park  
• Homestead National Monument of America  
• Point Reyes National Seashore  
• San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park  
• Pine Jog Environmental Education Center
• UNC - Asheville New Science Building  
• Department of Energy, High-Performance Buildings Case Studies

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Charrettes (design sketching): ½ inspiration, ½ buy-in.

December 22, 2013 2013-12-22

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In This Article:

What are design charrettes, benefits and goals, ​how to conduct a design charrette, ideas unfolding, when to conduct a design charrette.

Definition: A design charrette is a short, collaborative meeting during which members of a team quickly collaborate and sketch designs to explore and share a broad diversity of design ideas.

The idea for design charrettes (from the French word charrette meaning “chariot” or “cart”) is believed to have derived from stories of architectural students in Paris in the 1800s. As the story goes, students’ exams were collected in a charrette, and some of these students continued to madly sketch together as their designs were being gathered for evaluation.

There are several benefits to sketching, whether in a team or alone, and whether under a time limit or not. In the case of charrettes, some of the greatest benefits include:

• being inspired by design ideas from various people;
• kick-starting a designer who is temporarily paralyzed by the blank white screen;
• hearing the priorities from people in different functional groups (and possibly building consensus);
• making each person feel listened to and considered equally;
• streamlining to avoid “futzing” with detailed drawings or using wireframing tools;
• doing all of these things incredibly quickly and inexpensively.

Design charrettes are fast and easy. Here are the main steps:

• Gather people in a room. This can be done with as many as 20 people and as few as 2. Anyone can (and should) participate , not just UX designers. But of course, the more people in the room, the longer the meeting will be. And if it is not a required meeting, then the longer the meeting is, the less likely people will be to come and stay for it (or for the next charrette that is scheduled).
• Give everyone a few sheets of plain paper and a pen. We can all agree that Sharpies make everyone more creative, but any felt-tip pen will do.
• Write a goal or a design challenge on the whiteboard. For example, “design a homepage that drives customers to buy more gummy bears.” or “design an intranet page that encourages employees to share knowledge about the project they are working on.”
• Each person sketches his or her own ideas for 5 minutes. Each has just 5 minutes; then all pens down. This is supposed to be fast. People may sketch one or several ideas, until they run out of paper, ink, or inspiration.
• Each person works alone. No talking once sketching begins.
• When the 5 minutes are up, each person gets 2 minutes (and no more than 2 minutes) to show his or her ideas and explain the reasoning behind them.
• The group may then ask questions of each sketcher, spending one more minute on each person.
• The person running the meeting has to keep time and be diligent about it. Otherwise these meetings can go forever, and in the future people won’t want to come.
• At the end of the charrette, the UX designer collects the papers and uses the ideas generated to help derive a design.

Attendees of our Wireframing and Prototyping course (in London, November 2013) sketch their ideas for a product-listings page.

Attendees of our Wireframing and Prototyping course explain their sketches to colleagues.

By the end of a charrette, the designer will have new ideas and a better understanding of why various people have different priorities. For example:

• The marketing person’s homepage design has very little content. It mostly encompasses a few lines of text about a particular promotion. Her reasoning is that the sales of the promoted item should account for most revenue during the current season, and she wants to make sure it is visible and legible on even the smallest viewport .
• In an intranet design, the HR representative sketches a section page with 90% of the above-fold space  dedicated to the benefits of the open-enrollment period. When explaining her design, she says that this year there will be no print mailings to employees, and that people already get so many emails that they don’t see them. She is concerned that some people will miss their open-enrollment window, and that people who are in the field on their phones  may completely miss it.
• A developer has seen a new way of presenting and coding a list of items on a page. So, when sketching the product descriptions, he attempts to use the new, exciting user-interface pattern .

​In some cases, designers may actually take the drawing as sketched by their colleague and use it as their design. But what’s more likely is that the designers will get inspired by the ideas suggested during the charrette, and garner a better understanding of their colleagues’ perspectives and goals.

You can successfully conduct and use information gleaned in design charrettes at any time during a project cycle. Of course, set realistic goals for the session based on what can be done now. For example, don’t set a grand goal when your website is almost complete. Conversely, set sights high when a project is at the early research phases. And save ideas that you need to defer so you can remember them and possibly use them in future versions of the design.

Use design charrettes to explore and sketch ideas for designs, include more people in the design process and learn what drives your colleagues and domain specialists in particular areas of the UX, and drive away the designer’s block you may suffer when staring at that blank page.

(A broader spectrum of design-idea-generation methods are covered in our full-day course on Effective Ideation Techniques .)

Many thanks to attendees of my  Wireframing and Prototyping course in London in November 2013 for allowing us to share their images.

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The Dos and Don’ts of Design Charrettes

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Design charrettes aren’t what they used to be – and for good reason.

The concept came together a few centuries ago in France, where architect professors would send a cart around to pick up work from the students.

If the students weren’t done, they would jump in the cart or run alongside it with their work to continue tweaking until it was time to present.

These days, design charrettes may look more like brainstorms, as a roomful of architects , engineers , contractors and clients hash out and contribute to a big idea. Modern charrettes are collaborative and problem seeking, pushing creative boundaries while keeping client leaders engaged and prepared to defend whatever may come out of the studio.

If you’re going to host a design charrette for your next big project, be prepared with these guidelines.

Start With Goals and a Plan, Not a Destination

If you are forming a charrette with a preconceived idea in mind, don’t bother. Charrettes will only be successful without hidden agendas and predetermined destinations. Instead, when planning a charrette with your team and a client:

• Define goals that are obtainable and yet demanding, so that expectations can be managed.
• Build out a schedule that factors in breaks and keeps a demanding pace.
• Try to find a location on the project site, which will get everyone off their home turf.
• Strive for diversity in authority, culture, gender and expertise, and know the personalities and group dynamics before you meet if possible.

Create an Environment of Consistent Participation

Now that you have a design charrette on the calendar, it’s time to develop ground rules for participants and for yourself. You must treat the charrette as the most important day (or days) of your project work lifecycle. The challenge to the facilitator is to amplify the magnitude and diversity of ideas, and then build up the best solution.

• Outline the expertise of – and expected contribution for – everyone in the room.
• Keep the meeting on track with one voice, disallowing multiple sidebar conversations at once, which can derail progress.
• Designate a space outside the room for phone calls, and set clear guidelines for cell phone use in the charrette environment.
• Know your subject and study all materials you can beforehand. Know the terms, processes, project challenges and constraints.
• Set up a parking lot board where ideas that may sidetrack the current effort can be captured and then returned to if time allows.
• Develop presentations in native programs – such as SketchUp, Excel and Revit – so that changes can be made by your staff immediately.

Lean into Technologies for Virtual Design Charrettes

In a time when many work from home, virtual design charrettes can be beneficial in keeping collaborative conversations moving ahead. To host a successful virtual design charrette:

• Have a team of three lead the virtual charrette. Have a subject matter expert (SME), a moderator who keeps the call moving forward and a software expert who can make changes and renders to any virtual forms via computer modeling.
• Use a camera mounted high over your desk so you can show planning documents and sketches throughout the charrette.
• Utilize programs like SketchUp that integrate with video conferencing software so the team can sketch a facility in real-time.

Hold On Loosely and Don’t Let Go

We often think of creativity as an epiphany or moment. In reality, creativity is hard work. The group needs discipline, focus and harmonic convergence to flesh out the big idea. The goal is for everyone to leave the room with that singular idea, rich with visuals and easy to comprehend.

How much time will that take? To answer this question is to understand the correlation between time and ideas during a charrette.

As time goes on, all the ideas the team had upon entering the charrette are spent. That’s when the dead air comes in, which leads to a whole new wave of ideas and criteria that start manifesting. To get to this point:

• In complex organizations, you want to comb up to the surface any underlying angst about the project and solve it in the room. Don’t resort to email chains and telephone tag after the charrette is over.
• Benchmark your client’s competition and dig into ways this project can be better.
• Keep the charrette moving and do not let it languish; more importantly, keep your charrette team, goals and vision intact. Once the teammates, goals and vision change, the only move left is to start the entire process over.
• After you send the client home for the night, your team’s work begins in earnest. Keep working on the pieces through the night, making any necessary revisions until the vision matures and has clarity.
• Represent this refined scheme back to the full client team on the second day.

Once you have your big idea, you can make your case with all your reasons and all of your boards filled with supporting evidence. Everything the group has come up with goes into the design book. Because everyone was involved in the finished product, everyone can explain and defend it.

And, because everyone at this point agrees with what everyone has come up with, the approval process is fast. Everyone is united, and they can go back to their teams and serve as your project’s greatest promoters.

This harmony may be the greatest result of any design charrette. The path may be long and filled with egos and disagreements, but true innovation awaits those who can stay on it.

This article was originally published on March 13, 2018, and updated on April 11, 2023.

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Crafting Charrettes That Transform Communities

Pas memo — november/december 2018.

Download PDF version (pdf)

By Holly Madill, Bill Lennertz, and Wayne Beyea, AICP

If you gather 10 planners in a room and ask them to describe a charrette, you will most likely get 10 different versions of what is actually done and 10 different opinions on how effective it is at engaging a community. So what precisely is a charrette?

Having held hundreds of charrettes over 30 years of practice, the National Charrette Institute (NCI) defines a charrette as a multiday community engagement event where stakeholders and decision makers work alongside experts to co-develop solutions to built environment problems using design. Although traditionally applied to community design and planning work, it is also being used in policy and organizational planning efforts.

When the right people are engaged at the right time, with the right information and in the right place, charrettes can build trust and provide the space for people to work together to solve divisive issues and create successful projects (Figure 1). Charrettes have the power to ignite transformation in communities — but without careful preparation they can backfire, leaving feelings of distrust in their wake.

Figure 1. Charrettes provide a space for people to work together to solve divisive issues and create successful projects. Photo courtesy NCI.

This PAS Memo defines and describes the NCI Charrette System approach and offers guidance on when and how to incorporate this process and tool into planning work. A case study from the college town of Norman, Oklahoma, provides an illustration of the power of this process in overcoming planning challenges.

Overcoming Community Planning Challenges With Charrettes

Community planning work is done in a complex and contentious world. The NCI Charrette System approach excels in these environments by establishing trust among disparate groups, creating space for community members to work alongside decision makers and experts in solving big practical problems, and illustrating possible scenarios to alleviate the fear of change, all in a condensed time frame that can save money and certainly time.

Community planners face many challenges that are difficult to overcome, including lack of trust, fear of change, exclusion, entrenched thinking, specialty silos, and endless meetings.

Lack of trust . Lack of trust in government is becoming more common in many communities, possibly born out of failed promises, poor interactions with government staff or processes, or the effects of dwindling budgets. Planners often have to rebuild or establish trust with community members to advance planning work.

Fear of change. Change, though inevitable, can be hard for people to accept. To many neighbors, growth means more housing units, more people, and more traffic, which can only erode their quality of life, strain already strapped city services, and threaten neighborhood architectural character, safety, and property values.

Exclusion . Planning processes have historically underrepresented groups such as minorities, low-income populations, and persons with disabilities, among others. Many planners and communities still struggle with removing barriers to participation for all.

Opposing views . People are becoming less willing to collaborate with countering viewpoints. Entrenched thinking, extreme polarization in partisan politics, and an increasing lack of civil dialogue are just a few of the many factors that make up this complex dynamic, and this can find its way into planning projects. Sometimes, even getting neighbors who disagree together in the same room is a challenge.

Specialty silos . Solving community planning problems requires collaboration between city agencies and interest groups. Specialty silos exist when people are so embedded in their area of expertise or advocacy that they have difficulty understanding and appreciating other relevant positions. Historically this has played out with transportation experts clashing with planners or environmentalists clashing with developers.

Endless, unproductive meetings . Collaboration on planning projects is a challenge because there is usually a large set of stakeholders with disparate viewpoints to engage. Efforts to involve everyone often results in meeting after meeting with slow progress, which can result in community fatigue and absenteeism rather than generating project support and momentum. Elected officials come and go during this time and group memory is lost, further slowing progress.

The NCI Charrette System employs a number of strategies for intervening in complex situations and moving groups from stagnation to action.

Begin by building trust and listening. The very first phase of the NCI Charrette System incorporates the idea of becoming "people ready." This involves an intense effort to identify and engage with all people who are key to a successful project — those whose lives will be affected by the outcome. Trust is built by first listening to their issues, needs, and values.

Embed people in the design process throughout the charrette. Charrettes use a collaborative design process to provide a new way for people to interact in community planning. During the multiple-day charrette, stakeholders engage in the evolution of the project design through a series of at least three review sessions or feedback loops, creating a flow of interchange between the design team and community members. Designers say that the three feedback loops "allow us to get it wrong twice." This process of the design team proposing, listening, and revising is an essential strategy for building community trust in the process. Understanding of and support for the design proposals develops as people see their feedback being addressed. When this is achieved, it is a step toward building trust between community members and with government.

Change perceptions and positions through collaboration by design. Charrettes engage people's creativity by visualizing change through the use of design sketches. This method expands the limits of the conversation beyond words and numbers. What might be described as an inquiry by design process helps people to engage in complex problems in a more complete way. Drawings allow a group of people to see the same idea clearly. For example, illustrating a setback line in a traditional zoning code and a build-to line in a form-based code allows community members to evaluate the walkability and sense of each resulting place. People begin to see that zoning decisions include many interrelated factors, including the relation of a building's form to its surroundings, parking requirements, and the realities of real estate markets, financing, and construction. People see how the data and regulations impact what they see and interact with in the built environment. Drawings also help people visualize a potential future, taking the fear out of the unknown.

Bring everyone together in one time and place to solve the problem. Bringing everyone together to solve the problem in a safe yet honest environment within a concise time frame can accelerate decision making. Misunderstanding or manipulation of facts is reduced when everyone hears the information at the same time. The pre-design phase of the NCI Charrette System focuses on identifying the key participants and ensuring their involvement. Charrettes compress months of meetings into a week or less. This approach is more successful in gaining the participation of key players whose attendance can normally wane after a few months of meetings.

Use a time-compression schedule that compels people to participate. Multiple-day charrettes have hard deadlines, such as the Thursday night public meeting where the design team is scheduled to present a preferred draft plan. These deadlines create a sense of urgency that "the train is leaving the station." As a result, key players like agency directors who may have been reluctant to participate suddenly show up more willing to negotiate. This again creates certainty and finality for moving forward. Additionally, the charrette schedule offers tens of hours of opportunities to participate, accommodating many different schedules.

Provide third-party facilitation without politics. Charrettes are usually facilitated by third parties that are impartial toward the outcomes of the charrette. This creates a safe environment in which to participate for all stakeholders and allows people to share their core values.

The NCI Charrette System

The National Charrette Institute (NCI) was a nonprofit organization based in Portland, Oregon, founded in 2001 to give charrette practitioners the knowledge and skills to help communities achieve transformation through the charrette process. In December 2016, NCI became a program within the School of Planning, Design and Construction at Michigan State University. It continues to be dedicated to transforming the way people work together by building capacity for collaboration by training others in its methodology, coaching and supporting others as they conduct charrettes, and conducting charrettes.

The NCI Charrette System is a process for collaborative problem-solving and decision making centered on a multiple-day charrette as the transformative design event. This system is a flexible three-phase framework that combines more than 20 process-based tools to ensure overall project success. It has three primary phases: pre-design, charrette, and plan implementation.

Phase One: Pre-Design Charrette Preparation

Whenever possible, the project-sponsoring agency should work with other participating departments, agencies, and key partners to create the project purpose, process, and scope. This assures that the project is well-informed and owned and supported by the key players. Projects that are conceived of and organized through a collaborative team approach will run more smoothly, thereby saving time and money.

In Phase One, which can last from one to nine months depending on the complexity of the project, the sponsoring agency, along with key partners and stakeholders, completes a series of assessment and organization exercises that begins with high-level guiding principles and ends with a detailed project process plan or roadmap.

This plan describes who will be involved and how, lists base data needed, and describes the charrette or co-design process and products. This information also provides a draft project scope and an estimated budget that can be used to write a request for proposals. A project start-up meeting creates a focused team approach to project management that will guide it through the inevitable hurdles that it faces on the way to approvals and implementation.

This phase is all about being "people ready," "data ready," and "place ready" for the design phase or charrette. Project success hinges on a properly executed charrette preparation phase. In particular, not having the right people involved in the early phases can be the major cause of "post-charrette meltdown."

Being People Ready

Being people ready starts with identifying those who must be involved in the charrette to assure a fully informed and supported project. These include:

• Decision makers
• Those historically absent from the public planning process
• People who will be directly affected by the outcome
• People who bring valuable information to the project
• Those who can promote the project
• Those who can block the project

Once stakeholders are identified, building their trust becomes an important and primary activity during the preparation phase. Typical strategies to build trust include steering committee creation, tours and audits, interviews, focus groups, and educational workshops. The key ingredient to building trust is building relationships that are authentic and transparent.

Being Data Ready

The hallmark of a charrette done well is that the outcome is often quickly implemented. For this to happen, it is crucial to have the necessary resources and data to ensure the final product is feasible. Also important to being data ready is securing the right expertise on the charrette team and making the data accessible to community members.

The base data that goes into the charrette process includes the results from any public interactions or engagements as well as any preexisting plans, reports, or studies. Common data categories include site, transportation, market, social/cultural, economic, regulatory, public health, environment, and urban design.

Being Place Ready

The heart of the charrette is the studio, home to the charrette team during the multi-day charrette. While it might seem the easiest piece to get ready, finding the appropriate location for the studio can often be a challenge. It must accommodate all the needs of a working design office as well as provide the venue for both small and large public meetings. One of the biggest challenges is to have full access to and use of the space for the entire length of the charrette.

Phase Two: Charrette

The charrette is the central design event of the NCI Charrette System. The use of this term is said to originate from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris during the 19th century, where it was used to describe the final, intense work effort expended by art and architecture students to meet a project deadline. The process began with the assignment of a design problem, or squisse , and ended "en charrette" when proctors circulated a cart, or charrette , to collect final drawings for jury critiques while students frantically put finishing touches on their work.

The charrette as applied to community design and planning combines this creative, intense time compression and peer critiques, still common in art and architecture schools today, with public workshops and open houses. The result is a co-design process capable of highly creative yet feasible solutions.

The charrette makes the best use of everyone's time by engaging people when their input will have the greatest impact. Contrary to a common misconception about charrettes, participants are not at the charrette all the time. Instead, they attend two or three feedback meetings at critical decision-making points during the charrette. These are interactive meetings during which community members engage in discussion surrounding the detail and trade-offs of alternative design concepts. In addition, the charrette studio is open to the public much of the time to accommodate people who cannot make the scheduled meetings. Charrettes typically provide in excess of 50 hours of open public time.

The charrette results in a feasible plan that requires minimal rework and is carried by the support of all stakeholders through implementation. This support is generated by the ability of the charrette to transform the conflict among stakeholders into collaboration and a shared vision and implementation plan.

A multidisciplinary charrette team consisting of consultants and sponsor staff is entrusted by the community to produce the plan. Stakeholders — anyone who can approve, provide valuable information, or promote or block the project, as well as anyone directly affected by the outcomes — are involved in the design process through a series of short feedback loops or meetings.

Feedback loops and meetings must be carefully timed to ensure that there are a variety of options to fit participants' varied schedules. While NCI advocates that charrettes last between four and seven days, the most important thing is to incorporate three feedback loops in the process (Figure 2). The more contention, groups, and people, the longer the charrette. For example, a seven-day charrette is typical for projects with a large geographic area or those that are highly political. A three-day "sprint" workshop is better suited for smaller and simpler projects. All versions accommodate the three feedback loops; the differences are in how the feedback loops are distributed. Processes lasting less than six days accomplish the first feedback loop between the project start-up and beginning of the charrette or sprint.

Figure 2. The NCI Co-Design Lexicon and the many ways to incorporate three feedback loops into a charrette process. Courtesy NCI & Farr Associates.

Phase Three: Plan Adoption and Implementation

The NCI Charrette System is designed to create the space and process for a set of agreements on a vision and how to achieve it. Projects that fail in the late stages usually do so when the charrette lacked the proper efforts to be people, data, and place ready. Ensuring this readiness prevents what might be called "post-charrette meltdown," which can occur after the charrette is completed and as the community is implementing the project. It can take the form of poor post-charrette communication with stakeholders; market, political, or regulatory changes that impact the agreements and project negatively; too much time to implement the project; opposition from people who were not properly involved in the process; and incorrect or missing data that exposes critical design flaws.

Despite the best efforts, planning projects can take years to implement. A well-run collaborative process can result in a feasible plan that is supported by the community for years to come. Because people were embedded in the design process, they understand the plan and have a stake in the outcome.

Considering the application of this system — preparation, the charrette, and implementation — through a case study brings it to life and demonstrates how the charrette system can defuse conflict and lead to positive outcomes. One such case study comes from Norman, Oklahoma, a college town where increasing demand for housing near the University of Oklahoma campus clashed with the preservation of neighborhood character.

Case Study: Norman, Oklahoma

In 2014, a developer in Norman, Oklahoma, proposed a five-story apartment building occupying an entire city block in a one-story single-family neighborhood. It had been more than 40 years since the last substantial update of Norman's zoning code, and though it was unclear how the proposed apartment building would fit into the existing zoning, nothing precluded it outright. The community was caught off guard by the proposal and how a building that was so out of scale with its surroundings could be permitted.

The Norman city planners held a series of public meetings aimed at establishing a vision for growth in the central city neighborhood, but they had a hard time moving the discussion beyond a debate on what the maximum allowable height should be. Neighbors were insistent on restricting development to two or three stories, while the city wanted to address the need for more housing by accommodating taller buildings. The conversation could not get beyond a battle over numbers of feet.

To overcome this impasse, the city decided to partner with the Institute for Quality Communities at the University of Oklahoma to try a fresh approach by engaging NCI to conduct a charrette. The Institute for Quality Communities was created by the university out of a commitment to improving the communities of Oklahoma. It saw this project as an opportunity to address the critical challenge of infill development right in its own backyard. The university and the city agreed to share the costs of the project.

Led by Norman's director of planning and community development, Susan Connors, AICP, NCI began by working with city staff from the planning and community development to scope the project: a robust public involvement process that would result in a vision and a new form-based code for the city center area, while rebuilding the trust of the community in the process.

The scope called for four areas of expertise: public involvement and charrette facilitation, urban design, form-based code writing, and transportation engineering. To accomplish this scope, NCI added Opticos Design (urban design), Alta Planning (transportation), and Ferrell Madden (code writing) to round out the project team. The city assembled an advisory steering committee representing the city, the university, developers, affected neighborhoods, the business community, planning activists, and neighborhood churches.

Phase One: Pre-Design

The strategy in Norman was to build trust well in advance of the charrette. To do that, NCI worked with the steering committee, held a walking tour, conducted extensive interviews with more than 80 people, and facilitated a public kick-off meeting during a two-day visit that occurred six weeks prior to the charrette. This work went a long way to build community support for the charrette and establish relationships with key stakeholders.

The interviews were conducted in accordance with the NCI process. City staff worked with the steering committee to create a list of people representing relevant viewpoints, including neighbors, developers, community advocates, and businesses. The interviews were held at a local church in three small meeting rooms. Staff received people in the lobby, and consultant members of the project management team ran the interviews. The interviewees did not attach names to the notes. Each set of interviews lasted 50 minutes, allowing the team a 10-minute break before the next group arrived.

These interviews achieved important goals. First, the interviewees appreciated the opportunity to provide their candid viewpoints about the project. They left more interested in being involved in the charrette. Second, the consultants gained a more complete picture of the political landscape of the project.

The most important pre-charrette event was the public kick-off meeting. While a large turnout was expected, NCI turned to the steering committee to communicate to its constituents the importance of attending the meeting. This, coupled with the communications in the interviews, assured a more well-rounded set of participants. During this meeting, community members completed a vision wall, a visual preference survey, and a strong places/weak places mapping exercise that helped draw out a community vision from participants.

Building on the knowledge gathered from the interviews and meetings, the NCI team created a set of draft project values, goals, and objectives to serve as a starting point for the charrette. Working off the project scope, the transportation engineer gathered existing traffic data for the area, the urban designers studied the form and character of the neighborhood, and the code writers discussed with the city planners how a new form-based code could work within the city code framework. The main goal was to assure that the charrette design team had all the information to complete the charrette deliverables.

The Norman project was fortunate to have access to a large meeting space run by a local community organization. Well known to the community as a neutral meeting space, this location proved to be a perfect location for the charrette studio.

The five-day charrette followed the preparation phase and began on a Monday (Figure 3).

Figure 3. The charrette schedule to create a vision for Center City, Norman, Oklahoma. Courtesy NCI.

Day 1 (Monday) — Charrette Set-Up and Kick-Off

After setting up the studio and acclimating the design team, NCI opened the charrette with a public event to gather input on the public's vision. To get people busy when they step in the door, NCI employs an easy and effective method called a "sticky wall" to start a public meeting with energy and collaboration. In Norman, participants quickly built a set of the most common ideas for the future vision of the city center using sticky notes. NCI and Opticos then presented the project purpose and process, followed by a primer on neighborhood planning and form-based codes.

Working in small table groups, community members then began mapping vision ideas on aerial photos for the neighborhood. Each table briefly reported on the biggest areas of agreement, as well as any areas where they did not agree. NCI concluded the evening by inviting people to the midweek open house to see the designs that would be based on the evening's ideas, and reminded them of the times that the charrette studio was open for drop-in visits.

Days 2–3 (Tuesday and Wednesday) – Alternative Design Concepts and Open House

The following day, the charrette design team began developing alternative concepts for the city center area. Starting with a physical vision for the area and referencing collected community input and base data, designers began drawing plans and renderings that visualized ways that new buildings could be sensitively worked into the neighborhood. They also began to study the impacts of the envisioned growth on streets and parking.

Starting late Tuesday, a series of technical meetings were held with city staff to engage them in the design process on codes, land use, and traffic. These initial feedback sessions helped to keep the designs on a feasible course while making staff co-authors of the schemes.

Meanwhile, community members drifted in during open studio hours — a time when the charrette studio is open to the public while the charrette team is working — with staff conducting tours of the works in progress. People with a particular stake in the project, such as property owners, were able to meet one-on-one with designers, who walked them through the emerging alternatives.

This cycle of work continued until the open house on Wednesday evening, when the charrette design team put its pencils down and engaged with the public. Those concerned about traffic met with the transportation engineer, others interested in building form met with the architects. When it looked like there was a critical mass, the design team presented some of the key ideas and opened the floor to comments.

One of the most contentious issues concerned the design of the Campus Corner area, directly across from the university campus (Figure 4). This small commercial area with one- to two-story buildings is highly valued by the community. The pre-charrette interviews and meetings confirmed that the community was set on a maximum of two, maybe three stories for buildings in this area despite the fact that the existing zoning permitted more than three stories. There was also a desire that the plan would recognize subareas that could accommodate a range of uses and heights.

Early on in the charrette, the design team decided to test ideas for taller buildings that could accommodate retail and apartments. A rendering for a six-story building was posted for public review in the open house (Figure 5) and it was not well received; some people were upset that the designers would even consider such a scheme. Community input on this and other design alternatives was gathered through flip charts, sticky notes, sketches, and questionnaires.

Figure 4. Campus Corner current conditions. Courtesy NCI.

Figure 5. Campus Corner's first rendering showing a taller, modern building. © Opticos Design.

The design team convened that evening after the open house to review the alternative concepts in light of the input received from the technical meetings, the open studio visits, and the open house, as well as internal team reviews. The team developed a preferred alternative by merging the best ideas from the three alternatives presented.

Day 4 (Thursday) – Preferred Plan Development and Testing

Once settled on a preferred alternative plan, the design team developed more detailed investigations and testing of the plan. Ferrell Madden worked on the main elements of the code, building form and location, and parking allocations. The team met again with staff to further develop the main elements of the code. The transportation engineer developed proposed modifications to the neighborhood streets that would support a more walkable environment.

One of the team architects developed additional alternatives for Campus Corner. In contrast to the six-story building with a modern design that had been rejected, the architect proposed a southwest Mission-style building that referenced a historic building across the street. Early reactions from visitors to the studio toward this idea were positive.

As people continued to take advantage of open studio hours, staff gathered their ideas through sticky notes on drawings, flip chart notes, and questionnaires.

Day 5 (Friday) – Production and Presentation

The studio was closed to visits on Friday, allowing the charrette team to intensely focus on preparing the drawings and presentations for the closing meeting that evening.

The charrette team's final presentation recapping the week's work was attended by more than 150 community members. The bulk of the 45-minute presentation was devoted to the City Center draft preferred plan, which showed where and how different sizes and uses of building would be accommodated. The most important drawings were 3-D renderings that showed building form strategies for transitioning from higher-density areas into adjacent lower-density neighborhoods because they were approachable and easy for people to understand. Some of these drawings showed a bird's-eye view of entire portions of the neighborhood, while some hand-drawn watercolors of street-level views showed detailed building designs.

The presenters asked questions of the participants using instant keypad polling, which allowed everyone to vote on ideas anonymously. One of the most interesting polls came after showing the revised drawing for Campus Corner, in which 88 percent of participants voted favorably for the proposed five-story, Mediterranean-influenced building (Figure 6). This was a complete turnaround from the community sentiment against taller buildings before the charrette.

Figure 6. Campus Corner with stepped-back, five-story building, and three-lane Boyd Street with bike lanes. © Opticos Design.

Another controversial proposal was to return the one-way pair of streets running through downtown to a pair of two-way streets. The transportation planner presented this proposal and then another poll was administered. The result was 88 percent in favor of the proposal.

The last part of the presentation was a summary of the elements from the plan that would go in the next project phase, the writing of the form-based code. A final poll revealed that 62 percent believed that the proposals in the draft preferred plan were "on track."

The Norman charrette provided the political momentum necessary to carry the code writing and adoption process to a successful conclusion. It did require several years and many meetings with the steering committee, but the new code for the City Center area was adopted in 2016.

Since then several new residential buildings have been erected in the project area, most of them two to three stories in height (Figure 7). The university's efforts to improve on-campus housing lowered the demand for off-campus student housing. The developer did not pursue the five-story building.

Figure 7. Duplexes built before (left) and after code adoption (right), showing increased density. Courtesy Susan Connors.

Action Steps for Planners: How to Know if a Community Is Charrette Ready

Besides being people ready, data ready, and place ready, there are other important factors to consider when deciding if a charrette is the right tool at the right time for your community, organization, or project.

Is there the prerequisite level of trust for stakeholder participation? First, assessing the level of trust among the stakeholders is paramount. Consider also when the last public engagement occurred and what its impact on the stakeholders and the project was. Use a preliminary stakeholder analysis to make a quick assessment of the climate (Figure 8).

Figure 8. Planners can use a stakeholder analysis matrix to understand who should be engaged in a charrette and how. Courtesy NCI.

Planners must look at three levels of stakeholders in this regard: primary, secondary, and general (Figure 9). Primary stakeholders include public and appointed officials, while secondary stakeholders include nongovernmental organizations and businesses and residents directly affected by the project. General stakeholders include other citizens, including underrepresented populations.

Attendance from minority groups or low-income populations can present particular challenges for full engagement in processes such as charrettes. It may be necessary to involve a public involvement specialist early in the process. This person must have in-depth knowledge of the community and be able to connect with less visible leaders in the community that nonetheless will have an impact on project implementation.

Figure 9. Concentric circles illustrate the types of stakeholder involvement in a charrette, with engagement increasing towards the center. Courtesy NCI.

If after conducting a preliminary stakeholder analysis it is determined that important parties are not willing or able to participate, the timing may not be right. A key difference of charrettes as opposed to other public engagement processes is that participants are engaged in the co-creation of the proposal as opposed to simply reacting to a plan or proposal. Key stakeholders who are left out of the process will create difficulties for implementation down the road.

Is there enough lead time to prepare? An approach of "we'd like to have a charrette next month," without the necessary time for data collection, stakeholder involvement, or charrette team selection, is an unrealistic timeline. Successful charrettes may take six to nine months of preparation to have everything come together during the condensed multiday event.

Completing a quick "gut check" analysis on the complexity of the process is one way to gauge the timing and resources necessary to complete a successful charrette. For example, what is the quality of available market data? Will a new market study be required before the charrette? Important activities such as base data research and analysis, preliminary stakeholder outreach, and technical workshops should be conducted well in advance of the charrette. Making a working list of charrette products and responsibilities through a Gantt chart customized for the stages and activities of your charrette process will help guide the project start-up phase and help determine if enough preparation time has been planned.

Do we have the right resources? Taking stock of the resources available to you is important and will help give you an idea of the type of budget necessary for the project. The previous steps of considering stakeholders and complexity of the project are important for determining the types of resources needed for the charrette and its overall length.

Engaging stakeholders is time intensive, and if the project is complex you might need specialized talent. For example, does staff have time to organize and implement the public engagement meetings? If the project will involve technical aspects such as code writing or traffic engineering, is the time and talent available internally for these activities or will a consultant be necessary to complete the deliverable product? Similarly, there may be important regulatory, economic, or political elements that require additional skill sets and outside help to get the job done. Taking these and other factors into consideration will help you identify the resources needed to ensure a successful charrette process.

What to Do When You Are Not Ready

If the community is not yet ready for a charrette, there are still steps that can be taken to keep the process moving forward. For example, if it's determined that there is simply not enough trust among stakeholders to come together on important topics and the environment is contentious, a neutral facilitator or mediator may be brought in to help resolve underlying issues or concerns ahead of the charrette. In extreme cases such as pending or active lawsuits between stakeholders, a charrette may not be practical or advisable until certain disputes are resolved.

If a lack of outreach is a concern, conducting educational workshops on technical aspects of the anticipated project can help gain political momentum and understanding. For example, if the project involves new code work, as was the case in Norman, a workshop on form-based codes in advance of the charrette can educate residents on an important technical aspect of the project.

Because charrettes condense months of meetings into a week or less, filling gaps in knowledge of important and innovative planning terminology or practices may require extra outreach efforts. These educational efforts should involve both targeted geographic and demographic strategies. Messaging and content may need to be tailored to the specific audience that will participate in the future charrette.

At their best, charrettes provide collaboration by design by creating an environment of trust and transparency. Through a multiday event held on site and inclusive of all affected stakeholders, results can be achieved in a matter of days that otherwise would take months or years.

Development processes that are slow to materialize, lack authentic input, and never come to fruition can frustrate the public. By avoiding endless public meetings and breaking down specialty silos, charrettes can provide an important forum to embed people in a listening and design process with short feedback loops. The Norman, Oklahoma, case study provides an example of how the charrette process was used by a growing community faced with increased demand for housing while trying to maintain neighborhood character and rebuild trust in the community.

Working together to solve divisive issues and create successful projects is the "charrette way" for design-based public involvement that can change perceptions and positions and unleash local creativity.

About the Authors

Wayne Beyea, AICP , is a faculty member and senior specialist within the Michigan State University School of Planning, Design and Construction's Urban & Regional Planning Program. In this capacity, he maintains a teaching and MSU Extension outreach program with an emphasis on the science and policy of green community planning, renewable energy siting and infrastructure, and sustainable development and climate change law.

Bill Lennertz is the lead trainer of the NCI Charrette System, the first structured approach to design-based collaborative community planning. Since co-founding NCI in 2001, he has trained top staff from numerous organizations, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; the U.S. General Services Administration; the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; the departments of transportation in Oregon, New York, and Arizona; and many private planning firms across the country.

Holly Madill is the director of the National Charrette Institute at Michigan State University, where she conducts trainings and provides consultation and facilitation for charrette and other engagement processes. Having worked with the private, nonprofit, institutional, and public sectors, she specializes in community engagement, public policy, placemaking, and development of trainings, surveys and analyses, and strategy and policy documents.

References and Resources

Lennertz, William, and Aarin Lutzenhiser. 2014. The Charrette Handbook, 2nd Edition. Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.

National Charrette Institute. n.d. " NCI Charrette System ."

———. 2018. " NCI Charrette RFP Template. "

Norman (Oklahoma), City of. 2014. Norman City Center Vision Charrette Summary Report . July.

———. 2017. " Center City Form-Based Code ." July.

———. 2017. " Norman City Center Vision ."

PAS Memo is a bimonthly online publication of APA's Planning Advisory Service. James M. Drinan, JD, Chief Executive Officer; David Rouse, FAICP, Managing Director of Research and Advisory Services; Ann F. Dillemuth, AICP, Editor. Learn more at www.planning.org/pas .

©2018 American Planning Association. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means without permission in writing from APA. PAS Memo (ISSN 2169-1908) is published by the American Planning Association, which has offices at 205 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1200, Chicago, IL 60601-5927, and 1030 15th St. NW, Suite 750 West, Washington, DC 20005-1503; www.planning.org.

Presentation on Design Charrettes by Fine Homebuilding Magazine and the KC BS+Beer Group

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Virtual 3D Design Charrette Meeting Rooms

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COVID 19 plus travel costs have made in-person meetings risky and expensive. However, the need to have productive integrated team meetings, also known as design charrettes, has dramatically increased as planning for future disasters has become a priority. Today's damaged or destroyed cities and buildings need to be rebuilt better than before or risk repeated destruction.

Planning for any type of project can be made more productive and successful when designed by a team of interested individuals who contribute their expertise toward producing a better end result. Creating an online virtual 3D meeting room that facilitates productive design charrettes is the current focus of DesignCharrette.com and ongoing details will be posted on this website over time.

Perhaps now is the best time to plan your next project, large or small. Please peruse the information on this website about commercial and residential projects, if that is what you have in mind.

Basically a "Design Charrette" is a meeting or session focused on a particular project or set of projects with the goal of having a knowledgeable group of people offer suggestions and professional experience with the intent of making the final outcome better.

Design Charrettes have been used for decades by architects, engineers and other professionals to obtain better results for projects of all kinds, including: Rebuilding after disasters, (including pandemics caused by viruses), designing submarines to satellites, and actually every type and size of project.

Design Charrettes are used by the military, municipal and federal governments, private industry, international organizations to neighborhood improvement groups and the list goes on and on.

If you are not familiar with Design Charrettes then please click on the tab/link entitled: " ABOUT DESIGN CHARRETTES "

Please tell us about your project using the social icons at top and be sure to include the tag @DesignCharrette

Community Vitality & Placemaking

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Home » 9-Community Placemaking & Community Design Charrette » 9.1 Theory and Practice of Community Design Charrette

9.1 Theory and Practice of Community Design Charrette

The Community Design Charrette is based on the Minnesota Design Team model that since 1983, has assisted more than 120 rural communities discover their shared visions for the future.  During the three-day charrette, a team of 12-20 volunteer planning and design professionals live and work with a community to collaboratively develop short-, medium-, and long-term visions.  A “workbook” is used to help guide the community 6-8 months prior to the charrette with planning and logistical activities designed to prepare the community for the charrette and for implementation.

Community Design Charrette Process

Unlike a traditional strategic planning process, the community design charrette approach concentrates public engagement into a 3-day event.  The event or “visit” consists of a flurry of interactive activities that encourage the exchange of ideas while generating the energy needed for implementation.  Like a traditional strategic planning process, the community design charrette involves months of preparation and deliberation involving key stakeholders.  Contrary to public opinion, the community design charrette process involves just as much time and effort as a traditional process and merely projects the illusion that it is quick, fun, and simple.  This illusion is by design and is critical to successful public participation and implementation.

A Typical Timeline

Step 1:  Community contacts local UW Extension Educator (6-10 months prior to the “Visit”)

• Community Develops a Community Leadership Team
• Design Wisconsin Team Workbook
• Community Applies for a Design Wisconsin program to UW-Extension Community Vitality + Placemaking Team

Step 2: UW Extension Community Vitality & Placemaking Team reviews application and schedules a site visit with the Community Leadership Team and local UW-Extension Educator

Step 3: UW Extension Community Vitality & Placemaking Team selects community

• A design team of volunteer planning and design professionals, engineers and scientists, along with UW faculty and students is assembled
• A community profile is generated to provide background information to team members prior to the “Visit”
• Half of the fee is paid to the UW-Extension Community Vitality + Placemaking Team prior to the assembly of the team, the other half is paid 1 week prior to the “Visit”
• Preparations for the “Visit” begin with guidance from the local UW-Extension Educator

Step 4:  the “Visit”

• Thursday, 7-9 PM:  Team members meet Community Leadership Team and host families
• Friday, 9 AM – noon:  Community presentations to team members
• Friday, noon – 1:30:  Working lunches with 3-4 different community groups
• Friday 1:30 PM:  Bus/walking tour of the community
• Friday 3:30 PM:  Team meeting to prepare for Town Meeting
• Friday 6 PM:  Community supper
• Friday 7 PM:  Town Meeting
• Saturday 8 AM:  Team meeting and work session.
• Saturday noon:  Team working lunch.
• Saturday 4 PM:  Team meeting of presenters.
• Saturday 5 PM:  Team working supper.
• Saturday 6 PM:  Team pin-ups and photographing for community presentation.
• Saturday 7 PM:  Team presentation to the community.

Step 5:  Post-Visit Reporting (within 2 months of the “Visit”)

• Evaluation and debriefing
• Slideshow and drawings distributed to community and team members
• Summary report of the “Visit” is generated and distributed to community and team members
• Implementation/action groups begin working on outcomes from the “Visit”

Step 6:  Follow-Up Visit (6 months after the “Visit”)

• UW-Extension Community Vitality + Placemaking Team meets with Community Leadership Team and local UW-Extension Educator to assess impacts and collect feedback.

UW-Extension Pilot Program: Grantsburg, WI

In April of 2014, the University of Wisconsin Extension partnered with the National Park Service, the University of Minnesota Center for Rural Design, and the Minnesota Design Team of the Minnesota Chapter of the American Institute of Architects to conduct a Community Design Charrette in Grantsburg, Wisconsin.  The team included architects, landscape architects and planners from Wisconsin and Minnesota along with Community Resource Development educators from the University of Wisconsin Extension’s Community Vitality & Placemaking Team.

If your community is interested in a community design charrette, please click here .

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ASLA Professional Practice Networks’ Blog

Working as a charrette landscape architect, part 1.

by Daniel Ashworth, Jr., PLA, ASLA, AICP

Working in design charrettes is a unique experience usually reserved for architects and planners working in firms aligned with the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), using the ideas and procedures codified by Bill Lennertz through the National Charrette Institute (NCI). However, in the last five to eight years I have noticed more landscape architecture services being pulled into the charrette process, and with increasing frequency, landscape architects are leading multidisciplinary charrettes.

A design charrette is a three- to five-day intensive, focused, and collaborative workshop usually held on the project site or as close to the site as possible within the project’s community. The setting and nature of the charrette gets the project’s team members out of the distracted design office environment and into the same room together. Being on site means the project team is designing in public and are able to get immediate feedback from the public and project stakeholders through open studio hours and presentations during charrette week. The charrette process allows team members to access the project site whenever necessary, and it allows for the in-person team collaboration that leads to a better and more coordinated project and higher quality places. From a project management standpoint, a charrette can also be a cheaper and more efficient way to get the majority of project work done, even in light of the travel and lodging costs.

A typical design charrette usually involves the following:

• A site visit or tour with the client, project stakeholders, and the whole project team,
• A public meeting at the beginning to kick off the charrette week,
• Open studio hours for the public to drop in to see progress,
• Closed studio hours for intensive team design work and to pull together presentation materials,
• Technical committee and stakeholder meetings around topics such as transportation, historic properties, utilities, project neighborhoods, etc., and
• A closing public meeting with a works in progress presentation of the work done during the week.

This arrangement provides a great balance for intensive and creative work sessions along with having high-touch public and stakeholder engagement.

The charrette process is chosen by many design firms because charrettes can ultimately produce a better product. The biggest benefit of this process is the entire design team is together in one studio for a week designing with ongoing public and stakeholder input through the duration of the workshop.

In part two of this series, to be published here on The Field next week, I will talk about what a charrette studio looks like, the tools involved, and some advice about working well at charrettes.

Daniel Ashworth, Jr., PLA, ASLA, AICP, is a Senior Associate Landscape Architect in Alta Planning + Design ’s Memphis office and Co-Chair of the ASLA Urban Design Professional Practice Network (PPN). He holds degrees in landscape architecture from Mississippi State University (B.L.A.) and the University of Pennsylvania (M.L.A.). He is a certified planner and licensed landscape architect in five states (AL, AR, FL, SC, and TN). Daniel’s 15 years of professional experience include comprehensive and master planning, site design, urban design, planting design, construction documents, and construction observation and administration. When away from work, he enjoys time with family, running and biking in parks and trails, and going to music concerts and festivals.

Daniel will be speaking at the 2019 ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture in San Diego on the session FRI-A10 – Manassas Street, A Tactical and Artistic Urban Street Transformation in Memphis , taking place Friday, November 15, 1:30 – 3:00 PM.

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The Nine Rules for a Good Charrette

The nine rules below form the substantive core of this book. If you remember nothing else, remember these rules. They are easy to understand and easy to remember, yet they represent the collective wisdom and experience of hundreds of individuals who have worked with us over the decades, all struggling hard to come up with a new paradigm for making community planning and design decisions. The nine rules are listed below, followed by a more lengthy discussion of the rationale behind each of them.

Rules for Successful Sustainable Community Design Charrettes

1. Design with everyone

2. Start with a blank sheet

3. Build from the policy base

4. Provide just enough information

5. Talk, doodle, draw

6. Charrettes are jazz, not classical

7. Lead without leading

8. Move in, move out, move across

9. The drawing is a contract

The reader should memorize these rules. Reading the rationale below each rule should help in that effort.

Rule 1. Design with Everyone

Our first and most important rule is "Design with everyone." The usual public review process is an ineffective way of engaging citizens in decisions. Municipal officials will always defend their public process, yet these same officials will be dismayed when it leads to confrontation with what they perceive to be uninformed NIMBYs (which stands for "not in my backyard "; i.e., people exhibiting knee-jerk opposition to change). Public hearings are usually held in a formal hearing room, where consultants dressed in expensive suits stand at the front of the room and present elaborately illustrated plans to skeptical citizens assembled in rows below. The hour or two devoted to the public hearing is too short for substantive critique, and it is far too short for productive collaborative problem solving; proposing and testing alternatives or evaluating and negotiating community benefits is impossible in such a context. All citizens can do is voice their objections, which they often do stridently. Elected officials at the local level are notoriously cowed by the appearance of twenty or more angry voters, even though that number might constitute a tiny fraction of the constituents actually affected by their actions. Thus they most frequently vote to appease their constituents, making it increasingly difficult for developers to heed the needs of the larger community or to capitalize on untapped demand for more intensive land uses. In certain metropolitan areas, notably the Bay Area of California, the inability of local jurisdictions to withstand citizen objection to intensification of land uses has frozen what would otherwise be robust markets for densification and infill.

What can be done about this seemingly intractable problem? We suggest that the problem is neither knee-jerk opposition to change (NIMBYs) nor the shortsightedness of public officials in the face of opposition. The problem is that current processes separate the world into two camps: people who have a role in designating the changes that will occur in a given landscape and those who don't. We also suggest that even within the group that has design authority, the design tasks are so thoroughly dis-integrated (with engineering separate from planning, planning separate from architecture, architecture separate from riparian protection, and so forth) that a balkanized result is almost certain. The ultimately balkanized proposal cannot be expected to inspire support when the process that led to its creation so artfully frustrates any possibility of design integrity. The solution? The solution is to design with everyone.

How is it that everyone can design? Professional designers spend years learning their craft. How is it possible for nonprofessionals to participate as equals in a design process? The answer is simple: Design is more a way of thinking than a specific set of technical skills. Design is a state of mind in which ambiguity is accepted. Most problem-solving modes proceed linearly and depend on the orderly execution of certain technical tasks or rational steps. That is fine if variables are limited. But design problems always have a host of variables and therefore an infinite variety of possible solutions. The design process is therefore necessarily and inherently qualitative, depending on intuition and judgment to select from alternatives. Intuition and judgment, by their nature and by definition, are inherent human qualities as opposed to acquired skills. Certainly training can hone these qualities, and certain people are endowed with more than their share of both. But most individuals have enough intuition and judgment to add value to a well-designed charrette effort.

Rule 2. Start with a Blank Sheet

Imagine this moment: A 4 x 6 foot base map of a large site sits ready on the table. The base map is a 1:1,000 scale orthographic aerial photo of the 500-acre site. Participants are gathered around the big map, chatting, possibly having just come from a site tour. Finally, someone takes a 4-foot-wide roll of tracing paper and carefully rolls it over the map. I have witnessed this many times. Conversation slows, or even stops. Everyone realizes, perhaps for the first time, that the paper is blank—both literally and figuratively blank. The blank sheet expresses both possibility and challenge. Staring at it begins the process of galvanizing the team. No one individual at that moment feels adequate to the task. Even we, the organizers—who have done this many times—feel inadequate at this moment. But the organizers have one advantage over the rest: we have seen this process work every time. Somehow the blank sheet gets filled, through some strange human alchemy, with a shared vision.

The blank sheet is important both as an actual challenge and as a symbol of the absolute authority of the team. The team must feel empowered and challenged at the same time. If the sheet has too many, or even any, decisions already depicted, then the rationale for the charrette is weakened. If basic land uses have already been assigned, then opportunities to explore mixed-use strategies, typically the hallmark of sustainable communities, are limited. Things are worse still when basic road infrastructure decisions have been imposed—typically as a consequence of a previous study based on transportation models and strategies that necessarily lead to the auto-dependent sprawl the charrette intends to avoid. If land use and transportation decisions have already been made, the charrette has lost its meaning. Participants will quickly understand this. Any commitment to a challenging collaborative task, a necessary condition for success, will be severely compromised.

Admittedly, the previous paragraph is idealistic. Often previous decisions made for the site will not be reversible or subject to review. Certain elements of the context, or construction projects planned or under way, will produce unpleasant and negative pressures on the process. But starting with a blank sheet is nevertheless an important ideal to strive for. Organizers should argue forcefully with project sponsors to get the sheet as blank as possible, and they should refuse to facilitate charrettes where, in their judgment, too many options have been foreclosed.

Rule 3. Build from the Policy Base

As discussed in chapter 3, charrettes must be firmly grounded in existing policy. Ignoring existing policy renders charrettes academic at best and counterproductive at worst. Policy at the national, state, provincial, regional, and local level is generally compatible with sustainability goals. A direct link can and should be made between policy emanating from these levels of government and each element of the design brief. At first glance, this rule may seem to contradict rule 2 above. In fact, the two rules are a necessary complement. The blank sheet would be entirely too daunting a challenge without an explicit set of program requirements, while the program requirements would be pure fantasy if not tied by many threads to existing policy.

Program requirements are not real until they are tied to the site. It is easy for the design program to state that housing must be dense and affordable on the one hand and that stream function must be protected on the other. It is not until you try to design for both results simultaneously that the inevitable conflicts between these two laudable objectives emerge. And only design, as defined in chapter 1, can elevate and resolve these conflicts through an iterative and collaborative process of give and take, of synthesis and synergy, of empathy and understanding. Thus rules 2 and 3 are linked in a dialectical way; they are two sides of the same phenomenon, like night and day, hot and cold, rational and intuitive.

Rule 4. Provide Just Enough Information

In our description of rule 1, we suggest that the design process is propelled by intuition and judgment. But if intuition and judgment are the engine of the charrette, information is the fuel. Any site development project will be influenced by many technical and policy issues, many of which will themselves have been the subject of elaborate and expensive previous studies. These studies may range from riparian habitat inventories to marketing studies for housing to job growth projections to demographic analyses to social needs assessments.

This information should be channeled to three destinations. First, if the information is concise, it should be made part of the design brief. An example might be the allowable rate of stormwater discharge from a site as determined by the authors of a watershed protection study. Second, if the information is considered vital but cannot be adequately compressed to fit in the design brief, a technical bulletin can be supplied. This easily digestible document of four to six pages is designed to inform rather than slow dialogue (see the appendix for Web links to technical bulletins on a variety of topics). Third, all of the information in the "policy pile" is assembled into a charrette "library" of relevant technical studies and policy documents.

The key is to provide just enough information and no more. Too much information produces decision paralysis. Too little information produces bad proposals. Determining how much or how little information to provide, and in what format, is more art than science. From our own experience, we know that participants will digest very little background information prior to the first day of the charrette, no matter how far in advance it is provided. Consequently, vital information must be separated out and made concise enough to be digested during the charrette. To provide the participants with a deeper understanding, and to ensure that they will base their decisions on a robust knowledge base, we depend on the individual stakeholders, one or more of whom will probably have expertise in the technical or policy area in question.

Rule 4, then, is cautionary rather than prescriptive. It merely points out the dangers of providing too much information, and too little. There is no neat solution to this conflict. Ultimately you must have faith in the collective intelligence and experience of the charrette team. Your responsibility as organizer is to reinforce their knowledge with whatever reference information might deepen their understanding but not slow their progress.

Rule 5. Talk, Doodle, Draw

Participants should initially talk about their ideas, progressively move to doodling, and finally draw out their vision. There is a danger in rushing this process. It takes a certain number of hours, or even days, to unpack the issues embodied in even a simple charrette program. It takes time for the various stakeholders to offer their opinions about the problem, and just as important, for the stakeholders to get to know one another better. We often say that it "takes two days for stakeholders to become team members," and it does. The process of transformation from stakeholder to team member that occurs during the talk phase can seem maddeningly unproductive to the action-oriented designer, particularly in light of the ticking clock and the looming deadline. But rushing into fixed design decisions before this process has unfolded is an all too common mistake.

Stakeholders must also become designers. The transformation from stakeholder to designer also occurs during the talk phase. A designer is one who designates, as we pointed out in our discussion of rule 1 above, using a problem-solving process driven by intuition and judgment. But the average participant does not come to the charrette knowing this. Participants are more likely to think that acting as a designer requires far more technical competence than they possess. As the week-long charrette unfolds, participants gradually become more comfortable thinking of themselves as designers. From the other side, design facilitators at charrettes must create an initial culture of collaboration in which everyone is accepted as a designer, rather than "solving the problem" on their own. Again, skillful, empathetic, and respectful facilitation is crucial. Design facilitators that embody all three qualities are exceedingly rare and when discovered should be cultivated.

Most of the talk during the talk phase is at the table of the whole—the "big table" where the whole team gathers. Issue-focused subgroups may occasionally be formed (on transportation, community design, or green infrastructure, for example), but these subgroups should convene for a short time and then reconvene at the big table, reporting back their conclusions in a way that enhances the broader dialogue rather than leading to silo thinking.

Eventually talk must turn into drawings. The intermediary step between talk and drawing is the doodle or diagram. Doodles and diagrams were discussed in chapter 2, but in the context of this rule, it is important to emphasize that they are tools for turning talk, which can be endless, into concrete decisions. Diagrams are loose enough to allow for various interpretations while still imposing a discernible order on all or a part of the site. In addition, doodles and diagrams are not intimidating—anyone can doodle. Stakeholders can start to give form to the site with their own hands if the atmosphere of doodling is welcoming and facilitators understand how crucial it is for stakeholders to contribute directly as authors of the design.

Product of the doodle phase of the Brentwood Design Charrette in Burnaby, British Columbia. During the doodle phase, concepts can be quickly explicated in visual form and in relation to the subject landscape. Diagrams allow ideas to be tied to the land without getting lost in exact site constraints. (Diagram by Kim Perry.)

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The draw phase commences only after the stakeholders are sure that the drawings will reflect a previously arrived at consensus. I have managed charrettes at which teams came excruciatingly close to the end of the charrette without consensus on basic issues (ironically, this seems most likely to occur when there are more technical experts on the team than usual). Eventually they arrived at consensus, leaving little time for elegantly rendered drawings. But the drawings are the evidence of consensus, rather than an end in themselves. Thus, even though the draw phase was rushed, the charrette was successful.

During the draw phase, the table of the whole can and should be broken down into separate task-oriented tables. In this case, the facilitator's role becomes that of coordinator, making sure that the designs and products emerging from each subtable are compatible with all the others. We make sure that there are three or four "fast hands" at every charrette, individuals who are not only good designers but also draw effectively and expressively. But as long as we have a few very clear and professional-quality drawings to explain the overall design idea in a compelling way, we are happy to have other drawings that are less well rendered and in some cases very crude. These other drawings can be as rich in content as more professional ones while also allowing less skilled drafts-people an important task to complete during the draw phase.

Rule 6. Charrettes Are Jazz, Not Classical

Rule 6 suggests that design charrettes are like playing jazz. Jazz musicians often start with an organizing theme to begin and return to, with unstructured and extemporaneous solos sandwiched between. Jazz is therefore much like design: it works with ambiguity and is not searching for perfection, but rather for something fresh and unpredictable. Like jazz, design charrettes are propelled by inherent skill, intuition, and judgment. Jazz can reach unpredictable creative destinations that are impossible in classical music. This does not mean that design charrettes and jazz are random. They are rather a creative chaos, like fractals in nature—a process that seems random at first but eventually organizes itself into a beautiful pattern. The fractal patterns that emerge in nature, in jazz, and in charrettes result from the interplay between a set of fixed rules, dialectically related to opportunities for variation and creativity.

The analogy with jazz has proved particularly useful in our work. Stakeholders become more relaxed about this intentionally open process once this analogy is presented, and facilitators are less anxious knowing that the rules contained in the design brief and the physicality of the site will ultimately provide order.

Rule 7. Lead without Leading

Rule 7 goes hand in hand with rule 6. It pertains to how charrette facilitators should conduct themselves before and during charrettes. To lead without leading is one of eighty-one major lessons captured in the Tao Te Ching, written by Lao-tzu twenty-six centuries ago. This short text is a primer on the proper conduct of life, government, and warfare. Here is the full text of its chapter 17:1

The best leaders are those the people hardly know exist. The next best is a leader who is loved and praised. Next comes the one who is feared. The worst one is the leader that is despised.

If you don't trust the people, they will become untrustworthy.

The best leaders value their words, and use them sparingly. When she has accomplished her task, the people say, "Amazing: we did it, all by ourselves!"

Leading without leading in charrettes is thus about silences. When all members of the design team are fully engaged and actively collaborating, the leader, or facilitator, leads by remaining silent. She lets the process take its course. But the leader remains watchful for signs of disturbance: watchful for stakeholders left out of conversations and thus inclined to become increasingly alienated from the process; watchful for an overly aggressive and dominating presence in the group, a presence that makes dialogue impossible; watchful for a process that veers away from the objectives set earlier by the group.

Leading without leading also means asking the right questions: asking how a certain action supports the objectives of the group; asking how a certain response to transportation concerns might influence affordability, or aquatic systems; asking how the group thinks it is doing and how confident it is that it can reach consensus on all of the key issues. All of this listening and questioning is a quiet activity, characterized by much more listening than talking, and by talking in a calm manner.

But there is one more action that the leader who leads without leading must take. There are inevitable times when the group slows to a halt, dragged down by the complexity of the challenge or even by simple fatigue. Into these voids the leader must drop words. At dinner parties, the most able host knows that her skills are most needed at times when the table quiets. Extreme grace is required to take these moments of silence and break them, knowing that any voice that breaks them will command complete, anxious, and often critical attention. The able host gracefully inserts a gentle comment, a note of mild humor, into this void, relaxing her audience while encouraging a broader conversation that can comfortably split into subconversations again. With the party back on track, the host lets go of her reins of control, settling comfortably and gracefully into the background again.

Leading without leading in charrettes takes exactly this skill. The more subtle and artful this leadership, the less likely the group will be aware of it. Very few people are endowed with both the quietude for listening carefully and the courage to launch into dangerous silences. To become a facilitator who can lead without leading, practice and determination are required.

Rule 8. Move In, Move Out, Move Across

Rule 8 summarizes our solution to an unavoidable problem: Any charrette worth the effort will open up questions at many scales and across many issues. The broader the scale, and the more issues to be dealt with, the greater will be the need to examine these questions at the appropriate scale and with sufficient focus. Obviously charrette

Sample drawing from the "moving out" phase of the Sustainable Urban Landscapes, Brentwood Design Charrette. In this case, ecological issues of water movement through buildings, streets, and the site are very rapidly examined at the scale of the whole 500-acre site.

organizers can divide up the team to deal with these different issues and scales: planners can deal with large-scale issues, architects can tackle small-scale issues, and engineers can focus on technical issues, with citizens and other stakeholders scattered around. Unfortunately, this is a recipe for dis-integrated design, in which no synergy between issues is unearthed, rendering the charrette process no better than the conventional models it presumes to replace.

What can be done? There is no way to completely eliminate the inevitable tension between the part and the whole. But it can be made a creative tension by moving in, to small-scale issues, moving out, to large-scale issues, and moving across, from one issue to another. How is this to be accomplished? We might start with a 2-hour initial meeting of the table of the whole to discuss the charrette program. This discussion could be followed by a 2-hour breakout session at four subcommittee tables, which might focus, for example, on energy use, transportation, green infrastructure, and housing. When time is up, the subcommittees would report back to the table of the whole with their findings, soliciting comments from the members of the other tables. Facilitators could bring to light points of connection and conflict between issue areas (for example, the need to orient buildings to the south for passive solar gain often conflicts with an equally compelling need to orient buildings to the east and west and north for community design reasons). It is precisely these points of conflict that eventually spawn compelling and holistic design solutions. Charrette leaders must therefore bring them to the attention of the group, identifying them as important charrette design challenges.

Rule 9. The Drawing Is a Contract

Rule 9 is very simple, so we can keep it brief. The fundamental purpose of all drawings produced is to embody the consensus arrived at by the charrette team. In this way, the drawings are like a contract, but in pictures rather than words. It is less important to fully resolve all design issues than it is to be sure that the drawings truly represent consensus. The drawings need not be pretty; it is the consensus that is beautiful. If the drawing is a contract, that must also mean that drawings cannot be substantively altered after the charrette without the consent of the team. Absent such consent, it can no longer be claimed that the drawings represent consensus, and they therefore no longer function for the purpose intended. This sense of the drawing as a contract, not breakable without the consent of the group, should be built into the memorandum of understanding between project sponsors and charrette organizers. It may take the form of an agreement to hold follow-up meetings with the charrette team members as the project approaches implementation or as small or large changes to the consensus design proposal are considered.

These nine rules collectively constitute both a methodology and an ethic for the charrette. Remembering all and adhering to them as closely as possible makes the complicated task of running a charrette much more manageable. They apply mostly to the charrette event itself but influence the workshops that precede the charrette, workshops that are discussed in the following chapter.

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Readers' Questions

What is a charrette in architecture?

A charrette in architecture refers to an intense and collaborative design workshop involving various stakeholders, such as architects, engineers, planners, clients, and members of the community. It is typically held over a short period, ranging from a few hours to a few days. During a charrette, participants work together to generate ideas, discuss design alternatives, and develop solutions to a specific design problem or project. The goal is to bring diverse perspectives to the table and promote open dialogue among participants, leading to collective decision-making and innovative design solutions. Charrettes often involve activities like sketching, model making, brainstorming, and group discussions. The process encourages active participation from all stakeholders, allowing for the exchange of knowledge, expertise, and insights, which can greatly enhance the quality of the design outcome. The outcomes of a charrette can include design concepts, sketches, diagrams, and preliminary plans, which serve as a starting point for further development in the architectural design process.

What is a charrette process?

The charrette process is a collaborative and intensive design and planning approach that involves the participation of various stakeholders, such as architects, urban planners, community members, and other relevant experts. It is typically used to gather ideas, opinions, and feedback to develop and refine a design or planning project. During a charrette, participants engage in activities such as brainstorming, workshops, design exercises, and presentations. It is an inclusive and time-limited process, usually lasting a few days to a week, where stakeholders can contribute their perspectives, discuss options, and work together towards a common goal. The process often involves iterative feedback loops, allowing participants to review and refine designs or concepts based on input received. The outcome is a collaborative and multidisciplinary design or planning solution that considers diverse perspectives and meets the needs and aspirations of the stakeholders involved. Charrettes are commonly used in designing urban spaces, streetscapes, campuses, buildings, and community development projects. They provide a platform for open dialogue, creative problem-solving, and consensus-building, leading to more inclusive and contextually appropriate design and planning outcomes.

What rules should be established for a charette for sustainabile building?

Use sustainable materials whenever practical. Consider the lifecycle of materials used in the design and construction process. Maximize opportunities for natural lighting and ventilation. Reduce energy consumption through the use of energy efficient systems and components. Analyze the potential for renewable energy systems. Utilize water conservation measures such as rainwater catchment and greywater reuse. Incorporate green building technologies such as green roofs, solar panels, and geothermal systems. Consider building orientation and passive heating/cooling strategies. Optimize the indoor air quality. Design for ease of use and maintenance.

What is a design charrette meeting?

A design charrette meeting is a type of brainstorming session during which multiple stakeholders, often including professionals in design, planning, engineering, and community outreach, come together to generate ideas and solutions to a particular problem or issue. These meetings are highly structured and typically involve a moderator who helps to ensure that all ideas are heard and given consideration. Charrette meetings can be used to tackle a wide range of challenges, from designing a new product to developing a plan for a community.

What does charrette mean?

A charrette is an intense period of design activity, usually lasting several days, in which a group of designers collaborate on a project against a tight deadline.

How to conduct a charette california?

A charette is a collaborative design process that involves a group of stakeholders brainstorming and working together to come up with creative solutions to a problem. It is a popular method for community planning and can be used for a wide variety of projects, including land-use planning, urban design, and architecture. In California, there are specific guidelines that can be used to ensure the success of a charette. Here are the steps to conduct a charette in California: Identify the Problem: The first step is to identify the problem that your charette needs to address. This could be a specific issue or an overall goal for the project. Establish a Team: Your charette team should include a wide range of stakeholders with different perspectives and expertise. This can include members of the local community, professionals in the relevant fields, and local government representatives. Set Goals and Objectives: Once the team is established, it’s important to set clear goals and objectives for the charette. This includes defining the success criteria for the project and developing an action plan for achieving the desired outcome. Assign Roles and Responsibilities: Each member of the charette team should be assigned a specific role and responsibility. This can include tasks like leading the discussion, gathering data, researching solutions, and developing presentations. Schedule Meetings: The charette team should meet regularly to discuss progress and brainstorm solutions. This could be a weekly or monthly gathering, depending on the size and scope of the project. Collect Input: Input and feedback from the local community should be prioritized throughout the charette process. This could include surveys, town hall meetings, or interviews with local stakeholders. Develop a Final Plan: The team should work together to develop a final plan that incorporates the input of

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Design Charrette

Design charrettes are intensive, collaborative workshops that bring together diverse stakeholders to generate ideas, solve problems, and make decisions related to design projects. Originating from the architecture and urban planning fields, design charrettes have evolved to be used in various domains, including product design , community development, and organizational strategy .

These workshops typically involve a structured process of brainstorming, sketching, and discussion, facilitated by a trained moderator or facilitator.

Design charrettes are known for their participatory nature, rapid iteration, and focus on generating innovative solutions to complex problems. In this article, we will explore the concept of design charrettes in detail, discussing their purpose, process, benefits, and best practices.

Table of Contents

Purpose of Design Charrettes

Design charrettes serve several purposes, including:

Idea Generation

• Design charrettes provide a platform for stakeholders to generate creative ideas and explore different design possibilities. By bringing together diverse perspectives and expertise, charrettes stimulate innovation and foster out-of-the-box thinking.

Problem-Solving

• Design charrettes are often used to address specific design challenges or problems. Through collaborative brainstorming and problem-solving activities, participants work together to identify solutions, overcome obstacles, and develop actionable strategies.

Decision-Making

• Design charrettes facilitate decision-making by enabling stakeholders to evaluate various design options, weigh trade-offs, and reach consensus on key design decisions. By engaging stakeholders early in the design process, charrettes help ensure that decisions are informed by diverse perspectives and aligned with project goals.

Community Engagement

• In community development and urban planning projects, design charrettes provide an opportunity for residents, local stakeholders, and policymakers to participate in the planning and design process. By involving the community in decision-making, charrettes promote transparency, inclusivity, and ownership of the final outcomes.

Process of Design Charrettes

While the specific process of a design charrette may vary depending on the context and objectives of the workshop, it generally follows a structured format that includes the following key stages:

Pre-Charrette Preparation

• Before the charrette begins, organizers conduct pre-charrette preparation activities, such as defining the workshop objectives, identifying key stakeholders, and gathering relevant background information. This preparation ensures that the charrette is focused, productive, and well-coordinated.

Introduction and Context Setting

• The charrette kicks off with an introduction session, where facilitators provide an overview of the workshop objectives, agenda, and ground rules. They also set the context for the design challenge or problem to be addressed, providing background information and context-setting exercises to ensure that all participants have a common understanding of the project scope and goals.

Idea Generation and Brainstorming

• The heart of the charrette involves idea generation and brainstorming sessions, where participants explore different design concepts, sketch ideas, and share their thoughts and perspectives. Facilitators use various techniques, such as design prompts, sketching exercises, and group discussions, to stimulate creativity and encourage active participation.

Iterative Design and Feedback

• Throughout the charrette, participants engage in iterative design activities, refining and iterating on their ideas based on feedback from facilitators and fellow participants. Design reviews, critiques, and peer-to-peer feedback sessions help participants identify strengths and weaknesses in their designs and make improvements accordingly.

Presentation and Review

• At the end of the charrette, participants present their design concepts to the larger group for feedback and review. Presentations may take the form of informal discussions, formal presentations, or gallery walks, depending on the size and format of the workshop. Facilitators facilitate constructive feedback sessions, guiding participants in providing actionable feedback and identifying next steps.

Documentation and Follow-Up

• Following the charrette, organizers document the outcomes, decisions, and action items generated during the workshop. They also compile and distribute a summary report or documentation package to participants, ensuring that the insights and ideas generated during the charrette are captured and shared with relevant stakeholders. Follow-up activities may include additional design iterations, stakeholder meetings, or project planning sessions.

Benefits of Design Charrettes

Design charrettes offer several benefits, including:

Collaboration and Engagement

• Design charrettes foster collaboration and engagement among stakeholders, bringing together diverse perspectives, expertise, and ideas. By providing a platform for meaningful dialogue and interaction, charrettes promote teamwork, trust, and shared ownership of the design process and outcomes.

Innovation and Creativity

• Design charrettes stimulate innovation and creativity by providing a structured yet flexible environment for brainstorming and idea generation. By encouraging participants to think outside the box and explore unconventional solutions, charrettes foster a culture of innovation and experimentation.

Decision-Making and Consensus Building

• Design charrettes facilitate decision-making and consensus building by enabling stakeholders to evaluate design options, weigh trade-offs, and reach agreement on key decisions. By involving stakeholders early in the design process, charrettes help ensure that decisions are informed by diverse perspectives and aligned with project goals.

Efficiency and Rapid Prototyping

• Design charrettes promote efficiency and rapid prototyping by compressing the design process into a condensed timeframe. By encouraging quick iterations, feedback loops, and tangible outputs, charrettes enable participants to develop and test ideas rapidly, accelerating the design process and reducing time to market.

Best Practices for Design Charrettes

To maximize the effectiveness of design charrettes, consider the following best practices:

Define Clear Objectives

• Clearly define the objectives, scope, and goals of the charrette to ensure that participants understand the purpose of the workshop and stay focused on the desired outcomes.

Engage Diverse Stakeholders

• Invite a diverse range of stakeholders to participate in the charrette, including designers, end-users, subject matter experts, and decision-makers, to ensure that all relevant perspectives are represented.

Foster a Collaborative Environment

• Create a collaborative and inclusive environment where participants feel comfortable sharing ideas, asking questions, and challenging assumptions. Encourage active participation and respectful dialogue among participants.

Use Visual Tools and Techniques

• Incorporate visual tools and techniques, such as sketching, prototyping, and visualization software, to facilitate idea generation, communication, and decision-making. Visual aids help participants translate abstract concepts into tangible designs and foster a common understanding of the design challenge.

Facilitate Effective Communication

• Facilitate effective communication and information sharing among participants by providing clear instructions, setting ground rules, and using facilitation techniques, such as active listening, summarizing, and paraphrasing.

Embrace Iteration and Feedback

• Embrace iteration and feedback throughout the charrette process, encouraging participants to iterate on their designs based on feedback from facilitators and peers. Foster a culture of constructive criticism and continuous improvement, where feedback is valued and used to refine and enhance designs.

Document and Capture Insights

• Document the outcomes, decisions, and insights generated during the charrette to ensure that valuable ideas and feedback are captured and shared with relevant stakeholders. Compile a summary report or documentation package that highlights key findings, design concepts, and action items for follow-up.

Design charrettes are powerful tools for generating ideas, solving problems, and making decisions related to design projects. By bringing together diverse stakeholders in a collaborative and structured environment, charrettes stimulate innovation , foster creativity, and promote consensus building. By following best practices and incorporating feedback from participants, organizers can maximize the effectiveness of design charrettes and ensure that they achieve their intended objectives. Whether used in architecture, product design , community development, or organizational strategy , design charrettes offer a valuable approach for addressing complex design challenges and driving meaningful change.

Connected Thinking Frameworks

Convergent vs. Divergent Thinking

Critical Thinking

Second-Order Thinking

Lateral Thinking

Bounded Rationality

Dunning-Kruger Effect

Occam’s Razor

Lindy Effect

Antifragility

Systems Thinking

Vertical Thinking

Maslow’s Hammer

Peter Principle

Straw Man Fallacy

Streisand Effect

Recognition Heuristic

Representativeness Heuristic

Take-The-Best Heuristic

Bundling Bias

Barnum Effect

First-Principles Thinking

Ladder Of Inference

Goodhart’s Law

Six Thinking Hats Model

Mandela Effect

Crowding-Out Effect

Bandwagon Effect

Moore’s Law

Disruptive Innovation

Value Migration

Bye-Now Effect

Stereotyping

Murphy’s Law

Law of Unintended Consequences

Fundamental Attribution Error

Outcome Bias

Hindsight Bias

Read Next:  Biases ,  Bounded Rationality ,  Mandela Effect ,  Dunning-Kruger Effect ,  Lindy Effect ,  Crowding Out Effect ,  Bandwagon Effect .

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2020 Design Charrette

Submit comments on the Charrette here

The Santa Barbara Chapter of the American Institute of Architects conducted the 2020 Design Charrette to Reinvigorate, Reinvent, Reimagine, and Repurpose our Downtown with housing, energy, and life. The Charrette consists of design teams of volunteer architects, landscape architects, planners, engineers, and other experts who applied their talent and expertise to envision a future Downtown Santa Barbara.

According to Architect Detlev Peikert, AIA “This Charrette could be a vision to inform the community for the next 100 years.”

Thank you to the broader community for participating in the survey.  These ideas helped inform the designers as they worked to solve problems and illustrate new ideas and visions for Santa Barbara now and into the future.

The design teams focused on ideas for housing via adaptive reuse of existing buildings, new structures for “opportunity” sites, and development of our public open spaces. A few teams reviewed the entire promenade area in terms of flow, entry points, and supporting local businesses.

2020 Design Charrette Booklet

The AIASB is proud to present the 2020 Design Charrette Booklet! This 300+ page booklet houses all the fantastic work of our 16 design teams. Flip through the digital booklet or download it onto your device.

2020 Design Charrette Poster Exhibit Booklet

This booklet of 21 pages is a presentation of the different categories of the charrette, such as Gateways and Intersections; Paseos, Courtyards and Plazas; Housing Solutions etc.

Charrette Poster Display now in Storefronts on State Street

Highlights of the 2020 State Street Charrette are now posted in the windows of a vacant storefront on State Street –  the former Forever 21 store, at 901 State St

Thank you to Trico for donating the printing of the posters!

2020 Design Charrette Presentation

October 21, 6.00 – 7.30 pm.

Click here to see the 2020 Design Charrette Presentation   to the Public.  See the results of your survey put into plans for downtown State Street.  Each of the teams who covered one or blocks of State Street will be presented their new proposed vision.

Lessons Learned In The 2020 Community Design Charrette For Downtown Santa Barbara

January 21, 2021   4.00 – 6.00 pm

AIA Santa Barbara Chapter Presentation to Santa Barbara City Council – the results of Design Charrette 2020

Public Input

George Gerth Volunteer of the Year Award

AIA Santa Barbara Design Charette received the George Gerth Volunteer of the Year Award for its work mobilizing the minds and creativity of more than 200 design professionals and 16 teams to reimagine and re-envision the downtown area.

Cass Ensberg, FAIA,  accepted the award on behalf of the charrette team and AIASB.  See her acceptance speech here.

Downtown Santa Barbara announces community awards:

Santa Barbara News-Press

Design Charrette Receives Golden Leaf Award

Santa Barbara Beautiful has honored the American Institute of Architects Santa Barbara Chapter with one of this year’s  “Golden Leaf Awards”.   These special awards recognize organizations and individuals “who have given joy to our city during these difficult times of Covid-19.”   Our local AIA chapter was recognized for its “SB 2020 Design Charrette – Downtown State Street,” a project to  “ Reinvigorate, Reinvent, Reimagine, and Repurpose our Downtown with housing, energy, and life.

Read about the charrette at aiasb.com Named in the award are: Committee chairs:  Cassandra Ensberg, FAIA & LEED AP, Detty Peikhert, AIA, LEED AP BD+C and Ellen Bildsten, AIA, LEED AP AIASB 2020 President: Matthew Beausoleil Steering committee: Alex Pujo, AIA; Amy Fitzgerald Tripp, Assoc. AIA; Paul Rupp, AIA; Dennis Thompson, FAIA; John Campanella; Karen Feeney, Hon. AIASB; Nina Johnson; Tony Tomasello; Jasper Jacobs, P.E.; John Margolis, AIA; Brian Cearnal, AIA; Ashley Taylor

Promenade, plazas, paseos & parks *New

Santa Barbara’s downtown promenade expected to remain into 2021

Public Invited to View Window Exhibit on Community Vision for Downtown

Voice Magazine- Envisioning a Green and Enlivened Paseo Del Arte Downtown Pg. 12-13

KEYT- New designs for downtown Santa Barbara on display for the public to see

Independent- The State Street of Tomorrow

Noozhawk- Local Architects Share Their Visions for Reimagined Downtown Santa Barbara

Voice Magazine- Pg. 14-15

Voice Magazine- Pg. 8

Golden Leaf Award

Golden Leaf Awards Pg. 12

Santa Barbara’s State Street Closure an Overwhelming Hit Among Locals, Survey Finds

Taking the Pulse of State Street’s pedestrian Promenade

Residents Respond In Droves to Reimagining Downtown Santa Barbara Pg. 19

State Street Promenade Survey Results Released

A new vision for Santa Barbara

How High Should We Build? Pg. 5

What’s the Future for State Street’s Promenade?

Local Architects Invite Community Input on State Street Promenade

Architects Launch Downtown Design Initiative Pg. 2

What Will Happen to Office Buildings?

Keeping the Lights Shining on State Street

Santa Barbara Architects Say Pandemic Serves as Opportunity to Reinvent Downtown

Thank You to Our Sponsors!!!

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Sintering parameters for uranium-gadolinium oxide fuel pellets

• Published: 11 August 2012
• Volume 112 , pages 303–306, ( 2012 )

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• V. G. Baranov 1 ,
• R. S. Kuzmin 1 ,
• A. V. Tenishev 1 ,
• A. V. Khlunov 1 ,
• A. V. Ivanov 2 ,
• I. V. Petrov 2 &
• I. S. Timoshin 2  

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K. Kim, J. Yang, K. Kang, et al., “Measurement of Gd content in (U, Gd)O 2 using thermal gravimetric analysis,” J. Nucl. Mater ., 325 , 129–133 (2004).

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National Nuclear Research University – Moscow Engineering-Physics Institute (NIYaU MIFI), Moscow, Russia

V. G. Baranov, R. S. Kuzmin, A. V. Tenishev & A. V. Khlunov

Machine Building Works, Elektrostal, Moscow Oblast, Russia

A. V. Ivanov, I. V. Petrov & I. S. Timoshin

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Translated from Atomnaya Énergiya, Vol. 112, No. 4, pp. 245–248, April, 2012.

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Baranov, V.G., Kuzmin, R.S., Tenishev, A.V. et al. Sintering parameters for uranium-gadolinium oxide fuel pellets. At Energy 112 , 303–306 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10512-012-9561-2

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Received : 10 June 2011

Published : 11 August 2012

Issue Date : August 2012

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10512-012-9561-2

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