Charrettes
A Peek into Gensler's Creativity Boosting Workshop
A recent Gensler workshop to brainstorm the design process reaffirms the importance of design charrettes, idea sharing, or brainstorming for every project, writes San Diego Gensler Design Director Marin Gertler.

How to Improve Charrettes
In participatory planning, there is no planning without several events known as charrettes, which you probably already knew. Less likely to be common knowledge, however, is how charrettes can live up to their promise in the planning process.
Taking the Charrette to the Streets
Grist profiles Dylan House, a Brooklyn architect and "change agent" that is involving underserved community groups in charrettes to plan their urban spaces.
The "Eccentric" Town of Canon, Georgia
When asked to describe their town at a charrette, the residents of Canon chose words like "rundown", "courageous" and "eccentric". University of Georgia students and professors worked with locals to create a vision for the town.
The Power of the Kindergarten Art Supplies in Planning
PlaceMatters has partnered with the National Charrette Institute on a number of occasions, providing trainings and giving panel presentations at conferences. One of our common themes is "High Touch, High Tech Charrettes." During the sessions we talk about the advantages of low tech and when it makes sense to bring in high tech. Below I have embedded a video that is a montage of clips filmed during a downtown revitalization Charrette in Wichita Kansas. In this project, PlaceMatters partnered with Goody Clancy to help residents go through a series of exercises including keypad polling and mapping exercises to brainstorm about the future of downtown Wichita.
Communicating Codes Through Song
When working a charrette in Jamaica, architect Steve Mouzon inadvertently inspired local children to set a recommendation for urban farming to song.
Public Gets Rare Charrette in Abu Dhabi
In a region where public participation is often excluded from the planning process, urban planners are hosting a charrette in Abu Dhabi.
Appalachia Creates a 'Suitability Map' to Entice Responsible Development
A key idea of western North Carolina's Mountain Landscapes Initiative is to create a map of land already in conservation, layered with land that should be preserved, so that developers, builders, and residents together can plan responsibly.
The Developing Role of Charrettes
This episode of Smart City includes a discussion about charrettes with Bill Lennertz of the National Charrette Institute.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
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