School of Planning, Design and Construction National Charrette Institute

• You never know what will happen at a charrette!

  Published on June 14, 2012
  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.

• Collaborate? Sure, but how…

  Published on January 18, 2012
  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.

• Why does a charrette have to last multiple days?

  Published on February 7, 2011
  Answer: 1) Three Feedback Loops, 2) the unexpected and 3) feasible design.

• Tip of the Month: Pre-charrette education

  Published on August 24, 2010
  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.

• The Green/Red Dot Exercise

  Published on June 15, 2010
  A charrette technique to help facilitate a large group agreement quickly.

• Tip: How to start a charrette

  Published on September 16, 2009
  It may seem basic, but the most important thing to tell a community the first time you meet them is that you haven’t started the design yet.

• Tips for selling charrettes

  Published on October 27, 2008
  One of the most common questions we receive at NCI is how to convince a sponsoring agency or client to do a charrette for their project.

• Tip of the Month: Charrettes, the antidote to a multitasking world

  Published on May 14, 2008
  We live in an age of multi-tasking. As I write this piece I am distracted by the multiple windows open on my computer.

• Is there a maximum or minimum project size for which a charrette is the appropriate tool?

  Published on January 27, 2008
  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.

• The importance of embedding local staff in a charrette team

  Published on November 3, 2006
  Successful project implementation requires the understanding and support of those who must implement the charrette plan.

• Public meeting facilitator set-ups

  Published on June 3, 2006
  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.”

• A piece of charrette history: The CRS “squatters”

  Published on April 3, 2006
  The following piece of charrette history was excerpted from the National Charrette Institute’s publication, The Charrette Handbook.

• Building charrette teams

  Published on July 3, 2005
  It is not uncommon for charrette teams to include a mix of people who are used to working together, as well as those who are not.

• Dealing with pressure to shorten charrettes

  Published on April 3, 2005
  Often, first-time charrette sponsors resist holding a charrette for more than three days when a minimum of five to seven days is usually required.

• Why would a developer want to do a charrette?

  Published on March 3, 2007
  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.