Charrette
A multi-day design event held near the place being designed. A team of designers and specialists works in an open studio, and stakeholders and the public come in at set moments to react to drafts. At least three feedback loops move the work from alternatives to a preferred plan that is tested for feasibility before the event ends.
Use when a plan for a place or a shared facility needs input from many parties and months of back-and-forth meetings are not getting anywhere.
Solves: Plans drawn up by a few experts get blocked by the people who have to live with them.
- 1
Step 1: Prepare over weeks: stakeholder mapping, base data and maps, and a studio space near the site (prep).
- 2
Step 2: Opening public meeting to hear values and ideas. The design team then works up several alternative concepts (day 1).
- 3
Step 3: First feedback loop: stakeholders review the alternatives in the studio (2-3 hours).
- 4
Step 4: The design team develops a preferred option. Second feedback loop with stakeholders and an open house (1-2 days).
- 5
Step 5: Refine the plan and test it for feasibility. Third feedback loop (1-2 days).
- 6
Step 6: Closing public presentation of the plan and the next steps (2-3 hours).
- Keep the studio open with drop-in hours so people can watch the work and talk to designers.
- Bring decision makers into the feedback meetings, not only the final presentation.
- Test feasibility, costs and regulations during the event, not afterwards.
- A three-day version for simpler projects with fewer parties.