What in the world is a Design Charrette? That definitely sounds like a word made up by an architect. Indeed, according to Wikipedia, a design charrette “consists of an intense period of design activity.” The origin of the term “charrette,” according to CharretteInstitute.org:
The French word, “charrette” means “cart” and is often used to describe the final, intense work effort expended by art and architecture students to meet a project deadline. This use of the term is said to originate from the École des Beaux Arts in Paris during the 19th century, where proctors circulated a cart, or “charrette”, to collect final drawings while students frantically put finishing touches on their work.
For another LEED point, we would have had to conduct at least one full-day integrated design workshop with the project team, no later than the design development phase.
When I first looked at this requirement, I thought, oh sure – we did that. We can get a point here. But the reality is that we had a series of many different meetings. It was practically unrealistic to think that the entire team (architect, landscape architect, builder, HVAC subcontractor) would get together for one full day. Granted, I’m sure it would have been beneficial, as the intent would have been to “integrate green strategies across all aspects of the building design, drawing on the expertise of all participants.” We did have many of these discussions — in person, over the phone, over emails — but never for one full day of charretting.
Innovation & Design Process points so far: 1
Cumulative points: 1
Additional points needed to get to Gold: 87