Charrette = Internal Workshop

Integrated Planning

The method of tightly organised, collaborative workshops (Charrettes) originally was conceived of in the USA. In the English-speaking world, it has been successfully established for ca. two decades. Increasingly, and not least because of the dissemination by John Thompson & Partners und VON ZADOW GmbH it is also being employed in Central and Eastern European countries.

Charrettes create the consensus among proprietors, users and investors that is necessary in planning future urban developments. The method’s strength lies in the fact that it purposefully brings together a wide range of actors while the planning process is still in its creative phase.

In contrast to the much more extensive process of a → Community Planning Weekend, a Charrette does not involve the general public, creating a safe environment for internal discussions and drafts instead. Thus, by involving future decision makers Charrettes early on present an ideal solution, anticipating potential planning conflicts in the run-up to public discussions or marketing strategies as well as infusing those projects with new life by professionally conceived ideas which cannot be developed as classic sure-fire successes. A Charrette serves as the basis for subsequent urban development procedures, e.g. calls for expressions of interest or competitions on buildings, squares, parks and other public spaces.

Charrettes achieve:

• a purposeful involvement of important local actors in business, politics, administration, associations as well as landowners and, in some cases, residents or users
• an optimum combination of internal co-ordination and professional planning
• an integrated solutions from the points of view of urban, open space and traffic planning
• realistic, practical planning principles
• planning and investment reliability
• the basis for next process phases

Charrette – The Advantages

• profit from the experience of international experts
• generate new marketing strategies
• create an incentive for potential investors (offer them a say)
• assess a property’s potential
• evaluate the potential of buildings
• use it for both private and public clients
• integrate opposing interests by its co-operative method
• address areas with heterogeneous landowner structures
• save time and effort through one compact method
• be of great impact, limited effort, plural benefits
• use resulting plans and drawings directly for marketing (internal and external)
• stick to a fixed-price, fixed-time procedure