Several people have asked what a charrette is: char⋅rette [shuh-ret] –noun a final, intensive effort to finish a project, esp. an architectural design project, before a deadline.
When I was back in school, my design instructor told me this story: at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, the traditional French school for architects in the pre-modern era, the "charrette" was the push cart that the drawing collector would push through the hallways to collect all the drawings from the students. Students would work intensly right up until the moment when the cart came to them. Thus, the work of the architect intensified in the very last moments.
Today, we use the word charrette to describe a collaborative session in which many creative ideas are explored in an intuitive manner within a given period of time. After the given period of time is over, the ideas are put up on the wall, observed and discussed in an objective manner.
A charrette is usually not what finishes a project. Rather, the design charrette is usually done at the beginning of a project, before schematic design.
Hi there, My spouse is an urban planner and I've been to a few charrettes in San Antonio. Charrettes are open meetings where stakeholders are all invited to come, and as described, is a period of intense activity. But, it's always at the front-end of a project and not at the end. I don't know where that definition came from, but it's not accurate from the experiences that I've had.
Several people have asked what a charrette is:
ReplyDeletechar⋅rette [shuh-ret]
–noun
a final, intensive effort to finish a project, esp. an architectural design project, before a deadline.
Thanks Ruth!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was back in school, my design instructor told me this story: at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, the traditional French school for architects in the pre-modern era, the "charrette" was the push cart that the drawing collector would push through the hallways to collect all the drawings from the students. Students would work intensly right up until the moment when the cart came to them. Thus, the work of the architect intensified in the very last moments.
Today, we use the word charrette to describe a collaborative session in which many creative ideas are explored in an intuitive manner within a given period of time. After the given period of time is over, the ideas are put up on the wall, observed and discussed in an objective manner.
A charrette is usually not what finishes a project. Rather, the design charrette is usually done at the beginning of a project, before schematic design.
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteMy spouse is an urban planner and I've been to a few charrettes in San Antonio. Charrettes are open meetings where stakeholders are all invited to come, and as described, is a period of intense activity. But, it's always at the front-end of a project and not at the end. I don't know where that definition came from, but it's not accurate from the experiences that I've had.
The National Charrette Institute has some excellent resources. I invite you to visite their website:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.charretteinstitute.org/