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 [email protected] | http://www.hfadesign.com Certified WDBE through PA UCP, City of Philadelphia OEO, NJ UCP, DE UCP From: Julie Stuart <[email protected]> Reply-To: OS list <[email protected]> Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:53:51 -0500 To: OS list <[email protected]> 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 <[email protected]> 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 <[email protected]> > 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 >> >> _______________________________________________ >> OSList mailing list >> To post send emails to [email protected] >> To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] >> To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: >> http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org >> > > > _______________________________________________ > OSList mailing list > To post send emails to [email protected] > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: > http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org > -- MakingIdeasVisible.com [email protected] 770 329 4213 <https://www.facebook.com/MakingIdeasVisible> <http://twitter.com/#%21/juliestuart> <http://www.linkedin.com/in/juliestuart> _______________________________________________ OSList mailing list To post send emails to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
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