Charrette Method

A charrette is an intensive, time-compressed collaborative workshop in which designers, planners, officials, and the public work together over several days to produce a feasible plan or design for a place. Codified by the National Charrette Institute in The Charrette Handbook, the method replaces the slow, adversarial sequence of separate meetings with short, repeated feedback loops in which designs are drawn, shown to stakeholders, critiqued, and immediately revised. Its purpose is to compress months of back-and-forth into a few days and to build shared ownership of the outcome.