Fusion of Open Space & Charrette

Harrison Owen hhowen at comcast.net
Thu Feb 19 05:44:43 PST 2004


Some time ago, Virginia Burt, a Landscape Architect from Canada began
the practice of using Open Space as the introductory element for her
consultations with clients. Initially, she did this with Birgit
Williams, and I am not sure whether she continues the practice – but her
stories were marvelous. I remember in particular one in which Virginia
had the assignment to do the park/garden for a/the Canadian Military
College, This was a large project covering multiple acres, and
apparently it had been under intense discussion for years, and not very
productively. As I recall, she said that is was normal to spend several
years on a project with multiple changes and no small amount of hard
feelings all around. With Open Space, the design time shrank to 6 months
with few if any changes. And changes in design, once the project has
started are what drive everybody crazy, if only because they inevitably
drive up costs and time required to produce a finished product.
 
Harrison  
 
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland   20845
Phone 301-365-2093
Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com
<http://www.openspaceworld.com/>  
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm
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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Zelle
Nelson
Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 11:39 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Fusion of Open Space & Charrette
 
Hello,

My experience with Open Space and an architect/design project is
actually from a project I worked on with BP in Scotland. The 60 person
business unit I was working with was moving from one part of the
building complex to another (most would agree the space they were moving
into was the worst space in the building). I started with an Open Space
Visioning meeting where in addition to the usual markers and paper for
Open Space I added magazines (design, nature, home furnishings, etc.) a
big roll of paper, scissors, and glue. I invited the group to talk about
what they envisioned the ideal work space to be and to cut out pictures
from the magazines, use words, and pictures to create a collage of what
the new space might feel like. 

We took this collage, along with the results from the Open Space and
shared this with the architects and designers (the designers/architects
were invited to be at the visioning Open Space) assigned to the project.
Some incredible ideas that I could never have thought of on my own,
along with the many concerns about moving to "the worst space in the
building" were folded into the design process which also took into
account budget constraints and site needs/requests.

The design team then came back with a design for the new work space
(which included skylights and a "yellow brick road" gleaned from the
first Open Space). We took these sketches/blue prints and went back into
Open Space with cut out furniture options and pencil and paper. Each
team then looked at the areas available and filled in the design details
specific to their needs. Conversation and negotiation took place between
the different teams and a consensus design was reached.

The final result was an exceptional work space that was loved by the
business unit and the "worst space" in the building is now considered
the best place to be.

Along the way, I worked with individuals and teams around learning how
to create places that work for them instead of trying to fit into
someone else's design. I gave them, tools and a language to find the
best mix between personal and team needs.

I have a digital story (mini movie) which describes the process and the
transformation in more detail. If you would like to see that I could
send it to you. You could also visit my website
www.knowplacelikehome.com to find out more.

Hope this helps.

With Grace and Love, 

Zelle

************
Zelle Nelson
Know Place Like Home/State of Grace Document

zelle at knowplacelikehome.com
office - 828.693.0398
mobile - 847.951.7030

Isle of Skye
2021 Greenville Hwy
Flat Rock, NC 28731


Chris Macrae wrote:


If I am digesting the correspondence correctly,

I can start to feel a kaleidoscopic experience of all my favourite
explorative tools connecting people's visual sensing with the physical:
Open Space

The Charrette's special competence to keep visual notes of proceedings
in each of the expert's deliverable formats and in an open way for all
participants

Pattern Rules - a human wisdom banking idea from architecture I love

wow if we could get the public talking to architects talking to
engineers talking to policy makers through such an open train of
methods, the environmenst we live in could be wholly different

Has anyone tried linking with experts in knowledge-cities and their
social capitals-
This is a very hot concept emerging in knowledge management, and for
some reason KM/SC people seem to get research funds and spaces many of
us don't (or maybe we dont need the burden of such funds). 

chris macrae

PREVIOUSLY
Most charrette facilitators are architects who have learned their
"facilitation" skills in the trenches and have no separate training in
conflict resolution, mediation, facilitation, etc. I have been trying to
bridge the two fields, as I think they have a lot to learn from each
other. A short essay I wrote about this ( Hurley, Jennifer. 2003. "The
Public Process and New Urbanism", Research Report for the Knight Program
in Community Building, University of Miami School of Architecture.) is
available at http://www.hfadesign.com/newsroom/publications.html.
<http://www.hfadesign.com/newsroom/publications.html.%20>  Here's the
quick summary:

What Can Charrette Practitioners Learn from Consensus-Building? By
learning from the experience of mediators and facilitators, charrette
organizers could leverage the event to create more support for the
results of the charrette, resulting in more faithful implementation. Key
aspects that charrette organizers could learn from consensus-building: €
A robust theoretical basis for practice can inform the understanding of
the process and suggest possibilities when problems arise. € Situating
the charrette event in a larger decision-making framework that includes
pre-charrette outreach and post-charrette consensus-building increases
the chances of implementation. € Using the charrette to aid group
learning and build civic capital would leverage the event to develop
local leaders who can champion the plan long after the event. €
Charrette organizers could adopt specific skills from mediators and
facilitators, including stakeholder analysis, the use of ground rules,
neutral mediation/facilitation, agenda-setting, and consensus-building
techniques.

What Can Charrette Practitioners Add to Consensus-Building?
I have focused this article on describing what I think charrette
organizers can learn from consensus-building. However, I also believe
that charrettes are a technique that discussion-based mediators and
facilitators should learn
about:
€ Charrettes are a great improvement over discussion-based processes for
addressing physical and design issues. Words are a cumbersome medium
when the problem is visual. € The compressed time frame of a charrette
creates incredible excitement and momentum. In contrast,
discussion-based processes can take months, if not years, and are often
tedious and sometimes downright painful.

The last two points touch on Chris's question:
So that's why I am asking is their a specific charrette focus that olnly
expert charrette people buld in?

They key is that charrettes have architects, designers, engineers, and
other technical experts working on site to create a plan using drawings.
There's a specific product expected at the end of the week-long
charrette.

I think a one- or two-day OS would be a wonderful way to start a
charrette (perhaps taking the place of more structured "stakeholder"
meetings).

Jennifer

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