investigation and production it’s possible to achieve
in a properly organized event. The specifics of the
zoning codes and other regulations are developed
usually within 60 days subsequent to the charrette.
During that time the design content of the master
plan is encoded and any other relevant circumstances
are covered by reference to appropriate urban design
standards or development guidelines.
The visual power of the charrette – its capacity to
produce compelling graphics that capture the public’s
imagination – has helped it become the dominant
methodology of New Urbanist architects and plan-
ners. Creating visual images in two and three dimen-
sions is the most effective way we know to get to a
very important issue in the making of public space –
the role of public debate in forming public places.
We have discussed at some length the importance of
public space for a free and democratic society, but the
involvement of the public in that space should not be
simply as users, but also as makers. Urban design is
fundamentally a language of democracy, and it
connects individuals to the larger worlds of their
neighborhood, town, city and region.
This connection to democratic action further
reinforces the lineage of public design charrettes.
They are direct descendants of the anarchist philoso-
phy of radical thinkers like Peter Kropotkin
(1842–1921), who argued that the built form of
towns and cities should be derived from the work of
their citizens. This same anarchist ideology lies at the
root of many major movements in modern planning,
including Ebenezer Howard’s Garden Cities, Patrick
Geddes’ rehabilitation strategies, The American
Regional Planning Association, F.L.Wright’s
Broadacre City and the work of John Turner in South
America during the 1950s and 1960s. The activism
of people like Brian Anson and Colin Ward in the
United Kingdom, and the intellectual pattern lan-
guages and urban design methods described by the
Anglo-America mathematician-architect Christopher
Alexander, have continued this paradigm in the
1970s through the 1990s.
The full glare of public and media scrutiny –
sometimes hostile – make charrettes exhausting for
designers. It’s commonplace to have to explain con-
cepts over and over again to individuals and interest
groups who don’t stay within the allotted workshop
schedule. But it’s imperative never to turn away
members of the public; a friendly conversation with
someone may turn them into an ally. To this end we
always have at least one member of the team specifi-
cally on watch for newcomers, and whose role is to
involve them creatively in the process. Equally so, an
offhand remark can create an opponent, and we try
hard to avoid unscripted comments, or disparaging
remarks. It’s much easier to change a drawing than to
take back something we’ve said.
Within these caveats, our experience shows that
most people who involve themselves in the charrette
process begin to understand the relevant issues more
fully – and people who came simply to complain can
become constructive participants on complex plan-
ning, traffic, environmental or whatever kinds of
problems are under discussion. With good public
involvement, in a four–to-eight day period, the design
team can analyze the most important issues, create a
planning framework for the area under discussion,
develop the master plan with buildings, streets and
open spaces, and depict specific design details in three
dimensions for key areas. This combination produces
a document that establishes and illustrates a holistic
vision combined with implementation strategies as
the basis for future political action. This might sound
a grand claim, but it works. We do it in practice, as do
many other professionals in Britain and America. The
following chapters illustrate the results of this process
at five scales of operation – the region, the city, the
town, the neighborhood and the urban block.
DESIGN FIRST: DESIGN-BASED PLANNING FOR COMMUNITIES
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