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Task 14: Prepare for Charrette
Assign a charrette manager
The sustainability consultant assigns a charrette manager. This individual is responsible for choreographing the charrette and guiding the charrette process through to a successful completion. This role could be filled by either the sustainability coordinator or the sustainability consultant depending upon their experience and availability.
Assemble the charrette team
The charrette manager assembles and manages the multidisciplinary charrette team. The project complexity analysis carried out in Task 4 and the charrette outputs list generated in Task 13 help to determine areas needing extra attention and additional outside expertise. For example, developing the business case may require life cycle costing and full cost accounting expertise, while applying the sustainable living lens may require community based social marketing expertise.
At the core of the team is a concept design team that is present throughout the charrette and ultimately responsible for producing the charrette outputs. The concept design team should include as many of the project team’s prime consultants as possible. This will facilitate a smoother transition to detailed design and implementation. Typically, additional designers and facilitators are engaged to optimize the level of detail of the outputs.
The charrette team is expected to collaborate effectively amongst themselves and with the stakeholder group. It is important, therefore, that they are compatible and share common professional, sustainable neighbourhood and integrative working values. A number of the individuals chosen should also have the skills required to facilitate break-out groups, key stakeholder reviews and public meetings during the charrette.
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Additional Support | NCI Charrette Handbook & NCI Charrette Planner Forms Kit: 1.5.2 Charrette Team Formation |
Choreograph the charrette
The importance of charrette choreography cannot be overstated. The charrette encompasses a number of phases including the design event, plan production and final review. The charrette manager prepares the charrette schedule giving full consideration to all charrette phases, stakeholder engagement and the duration of the charrette.
Charrette Phases: All phases of the charrette must be accommodated by the schedule. Although the schedule is planned hour-by-hour and scheduled well in advance, it is the nature of the creative process to be dynamic and in constant flux. Therefore, flexibility must be built into the schedule to allow for the unexpected, for impromptu meetings and for inevitable changes that occur in a holistic planning and integrated design exercise.
Extensive information on completing schedule details, as well as alternative scheduling, is provided in the National Charrette Institute (NCI) reference material listed below. Based on the Emerald Hills Urban Village experience, the charrette schedule on the following page is recommended for a sustainable neighbourhood development.
Stakeholder engagement: Charrette participants work in a series of feedback loops that involve large and small group meetings and public reviews. Effective and well-run meetings are the essence of a successful charrette. The stakeholder analysis generated in Task 4 is used to ensure they are attended by the right people.
It is important to note that stakeholder input and review is limited to specific times as indicated in the schedule. Key stakeholder commitment is concentrated in the first half of the charrette when alternative concepts are being developed and the preferred plan is being synthesized. The broader stakeholder group and the general public may be involved in as few as three meetings.
Duration: Extensive experience has shown that, since the charrette requires a number of feedback loops, it should run for a minimum of four days for simple projects and up to seven days for those that are more complex. Charrettes of longer duration can be staged as indicated on the facing page so that all phases are not carried out on consecutive days.
| RECOMMENDED CHARRETTE SCHEDULE |
 DESIGN EVENT |
 PLAN PRODUCTION |
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1. Charrette team orientation |
10. Targeted research |
 FINAL REVIEW |
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13. Key stakeholder feedback |
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Additional Support | NCI Charrette Handbook & NCI Charrette Planner Forms Kit: 1.5.3 Charrette Scheduling & 1.5.4 Meeting Planning |
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EHUV Case Study | Charrette Agenda |
Organize charrette logistics
The charrette manager is responsible for planning, coordinating and implementing the numerous logistical arrangements, such as venue, catering and invitations, well in advance of the charrette. Because of the intensity, duration and compressed time frame of the charrette, the set-up of the design studio is crucial. It needs to support the creative work of a diverse group of charrette participants. The NCI Charrette Handbook provides excellent support material in this regard.
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Additional Support | NCI Charrette Handbook: 1.5.1 Studio Logistics and Set-up; 1.5.5 Pre-charrette Logistics Summary |
Prepare and assemble base maps and design materials
The charrette manager ensures that the charrette team has prepared and assembled all of the base maps and other design materials, equipment and resources that will be required to produce the charrette outputs.
