Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A collaborative planning or design session, often involving interested third parties such as public officials and environmentalists, in which problems relating to a proposed architectural project are discussed and solutions adopted in a limited time frame.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun US A period of intense work, especially group work, undertaken to meet a deadline. Sometimes spelled charette
  • noun Alternative spelling of charret.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, light two-wheeled cart, charrette (from the fact that when 19th-century Parisian architecture students submitted their designs for evaluation, the designs were taken to the exhibition place on such a cart, often while the students added finishing touches en route), from Old French, diminutive of char, cart; see chariot.]

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Examples

  • About 18 months ago, the Atlanta Regional Commission held a nine-day community planning session, called a charrette, to create designs for six sites within the metro area.

    ajc.com - News Kenneth A. Mitchell 2010

  • Shortly before I began my duties with St. Mary's, our sister hospital in Chesterfield County, St. Francis Medical Center, launched a fascinating planning process called a charrette, led by the Miami-based urban planning firm of Duany Plater-Zyberk.

    News for Richmond Times-Dispatch 2009

  • The charrette is a method to plan not only for the community but with the community.

    News for Richmond Times-Dispatch 2009

  • A charrette is a word of French origin that refers to an intensive effort to complete a design.

    News for InsideNova.com 2008

  • The charrette, which is open to the public, will host a collection of transportation officials, public servants and community leaders interested in revitalizing an area that is considered the gateway into Prince William County from the north.

    News for InsideNova.com 2008

  • It will culminate in a short, intensive planning period, referred to as a "charrette," from June 21 to 25.

    Columbia Missourian: Latest Articles Kristina Casagrand 2010

  • That meeting will be followed by another public workshop in February and a four-day 'charrette' in March for citizens, business owners and leaders to hammer out the specific regulations for the areas.

    Cincinnati.Com - All Local News 2010

  • Much of this arts development effort stems from the 2005 "charrette" sessions organized by the Knight Foundation, which developed a plan to revitalize Duluth's city center.

    unknown title 2009

  • Much of this arts development effort stems from the 2005 "charrette" sessions organized by the Knight Foundation, which developed a plan to revitalize Duluth's city center.

    unknown title 2009

  • A kind of charrette process (although I think the term and idea of a charrette is overused, there are many other equivalent processes) where everyone is open, people have their say, and the developers and architects are truly engaged.

    Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space 2009

Comments

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  • The Baltimore County Office of Planning and the Turner Station Charrette Steering Committee are jointly hosting a six-day charrette for community members to share their vision for how best to revitalize the residential neighborhoods of the Turner Station community in Dundalk. The Steering Committee will lead the community through a planning process, called a charrette, in which residents work alongside urban designers to develop guidelines for infill development, housing rehabilitation, and homeownership incentive programs, as well as identifying potential for small neighborhood businesses.

    April 15, 2009

  • Penny was often "en charette," as they say in the business (meaning "in the cart"—in nineteenth-century Paris, a cart carried student architectural drawings on their way to be judged, and the students would sometimes jump on to make last-minute alterations; hence, meaning working up to the deadline, pulling an all-nighter.)

    Charles Rowan Beye, My Husband and My Wives: A Gay Man's Odyssey (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012), p. 167

    March 6, 2016