We had a real charrette moment at our public NCI Charrette System Certificate training in DC last week. At around 2 PM on the first day of the training we were asked to evacuate the building.
The recent New York Times opinion piece, "The Rise of the New Groupthink," poses a challenge to the rising trend of increased collaboration in business and schools.
How can you reduce the learning curve for charrette participants? If you have a complex issue like affordable housing or sustainable street design you may not want to wait until the charrette to start the discussion.
Charrettes can be used for any scale of planning or design project. They have been used for projects ranging from regional planning to building design.
A NCI charrette is designed to protect the project sponsor’s position, whether the sponsor is a developer or public agency, by guarding against commandeering of the project by any one person or group.
It is important that a skilled facilitator lead meetings with all of the tools and techniques to handle difficult meetings at his or her disposal. The first task for a facilitator is to gain agreements on the meeting “set-ups.”
