[OSList] Charrette and Open Space ?

Wed Feb 1 15:37:46 PST 2012

Hello everyone. I've been busy with other things and away from the OS list
for some time, but the subject line about charrettes caught my eye. I'm an
urban planner who was a mediator and facilitator before I became an urban
planner. I've used OST in several settings, and I also facilitate urban
design charrettes. As Harrison suggested about another colleague, I've also
used OST as part of a charrette. There are definitely differences. Some
people say "charrette" when they're really talking about a brainstorming
workshop, and architects often use "charrettes" as a short, intense design
period, but urban design charrettes are 4-10 day multi-disicplinary
collaborative design workshops. The end product may be a neighborhood plan,
design for a new development, plan for redeveloping a downtown, new zoning
code, etc. Through the week (or so), there are a series of feedback loops
between the design team and all of the various stakeholders (general public,
neighbors, government agencies, advocacy groups, investors, etc.). It's much
less open-ended than OST and very focused on a specific product to be
completed by the end of the week. It's a great method for engaging the
public in planning and development issues, but it's also a great project
management tool. In too many cases, there are lots of delays and
miscommunications because "the whole system" is never in the room, and
charrettes try to bring all the interests in together. But charrettes are
not intended to be a fully collaborative method like OST. There are people
doing the work (designers, engineers, stormwater experts, transportation
experts, etc.), and there are people giving ideas and reviewing and
evaluating the work (members of the public, the client, advocacy
organizations). Some of my work involves trying to nudge charrettes in a
more open, dialogue direction (to be fair, charrettes are already much more
open than the typical planning or design process), but I also think there is
a role for technical expertise. For anyone who wants to learn more about
urban design charrettes, the National Charrette Institute is a great
resource:
http://www.charretteinstitute.org/

Thanks for the stimulating discussion!
Jennifer Hurley
__________________________
HURLEY~FRANKS & ASSOCIATES
1500 Walnut St STE 504  |  Philadelphia, PA 19102
p: 215-988-9440  |  f: 215-988-9441  |  c: 267-971-4598
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Certified WDBE through PA UCP, City of Philadelphia OEO, NJ UCP, DE UCP

From:  Julie Stuart <Julie at MakingIdeasVisible.com>
Reply-To:  OS list <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>
Date:  Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:53:51 -0500
To:  OS list <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>
Subject:  Re: [OSList] Charrette and Open Space ?

I'm also familiar with charettes from architectural clients. It is indeed a
collaborative process using a team of design experts. From my experience, it
tends to be a top-down process that allows the public to contribute to a
certain extent but not self-organized in the way we know OS to be.

On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 9:58 AM, David Osborne <dosborne at change-fusion.com>
wrote:
> I'm familiar with charettes from architectural clients I have and believe this
> is an approach architecte's use. From what I understand they will establish a
> set time frame - An afternoon for example - give the design challenge and then
> have individuals or teams all working on designs. They then collect everyone's
> designs and then share to look at the various approaches to inform the
> eventual design. the term itself may be from the architectural field.
> 
> David
> 
> On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 7:56 AM, Eva P Svensson <eva at epshumaninvest.se> wrote:
>> Hi all wise people!
>> Anyone having experience from a method called charrette? When I looked it up
>> on Wikipedia it says this:
>> "A charrette is a method of organizing thoughts from experts and the users
>> into a structured medium that is unrestricted and conducive to the creativity
>> and the development of myriad scenarios.
>> 
>> The word charrette may refer to any collaborative session in which a group of
>> designers <http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Designers>  drafts a solution to a
>> design problem. While the structure of a charrette varies, depending on the
>> design problem and the individuals in the group, charrettes often take place
>> in multiple sessions in which the group divides into sub-groups. Each
>> sub-group then presents its work to the full group as material for future
>> dialogue <http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialogue> . Such charrettes serve as
>> a way of quickly generating a design solution while integrating the aptitudes
>> and interests of a diverse group of people. Compare this term with workshop
>> <http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workshop> ."
>> 
>> To me it sound very very much like an Open Space meeting! Do you know the
>> difference? Any experiences, thoughts?
>> 
>> Hugs from a winter-like Sweden
>> 
>> :o)
>> 
>> Eva
>> Skickat från min iPhone
>> 
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> 
> 
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