Charrette

If you need to get to the heart of a planning issue quickly, or involve a group that’s hard to get together for more than a short time, you might consider getting en la charrette.  The term comes from a 19th century practice of the École des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts).   When assignments were due, the school sent a carriage or cart (charrette) through the streets of Paris to gather finished projects from architecture students, some of whom climbed aboard and continued to draw as they rode.

Today, charrette describes a intensive design process of limited duration.  A typical exercise, usually led by your architect, has four main stages, which may be spread out over months, days or hours:

1. Research.  Gather information on the community, the organization, the site, and the building (if applicable) via interviews, maps, data and foundational documents.  For churches, it’s critical to include a clear presentation of the organizational purpose and mission.
2. Analysis.  Articulate (usually in guided group discussions)  the opportunities, needs, resources and limitations apparent from the research and that follow from the church’s ministry objectives.
3. Synthesis.  Explore alternate plans that answer and fit the criteria that were identified in previous stages.
4. Feedback.  Share your ideas with appropriate groups to find a preferred plan.  Repeat stages 3 and 4 as required.

A charrette is an attractive option for churches.  It doesn’t require ongoing commitment from a large group.  (Need another committee in your future?.)  At it’s heart is the ability of a charrette to turn a sometimes incomprehensible process into an event.  Less time may equal fewer dollars spent on preliminary design.

Of course, no mechanism is perfect.  The charrette requires leaders to offer a level of guidance that matches the church’s polity and trust the crowd.  And no matter how successful the effort is, there is always more work necessary to bring it to fruition.  The upside, though, is that broad participation in the planning process greatly increases the potential for “buy-in” when it’s time to roll.