Charrettes
Chapter 12 of the New Urbanism Best Practices Guide
New Urbanism challenges development conventions, including codes, transportation standards, and finance mechanisms. It also challenges people’s perceptions about growth, arguing, for example, that “density done right can make things better.” For these reasons, new urbanists recognize that everyone affected by the outcome should be included in the planning effort from the beginning. Thus the three-phase process in which the charrette is the central transformative event.
This chapter, written primarily by Bill Lennertz, director of the National Charrette Institute (NCI) in Portland, Oregon, explains the charrette system that his organization teaches. An NCI charrette is a multi-day event during which an interdisciplinary professional design team produces a complete, buildable smart growth plan, reflecting input from stakeholders who have participated in a series of feedback loops. Charrettes are intended to effect lasting, transformative change. To achieve their objectives, a carefully planned and orchestrated process must start well before the charrette and continue long after it.
Lennertz explains the nine principles of the charrette process: Work collaboratively, design cross-functionally, use design to achieve a shared vision and create holistic solutions, study details and the whole, compress work sessions, communicate in short feedback loops, include a multi-day charrette (usually four to seven days), hold the charrette on or near the site, and produce a feasible plan. Research, education, and preparation set the stage for the charrette. After the charrette comes plan implementation, including product refinement and a public meeting. Lennertz offers tips on bus tours, crowd control, and involvement of visitors. This chapter also presents notes on the conduct of charrettes, by Andres Duany, who has made charrettes a key tool of New Urbanism. Among his suggestions: “Know something about the individuals who participate: It helps in relating to them, or at least prevents stepping on their toes inadvertently.”
