Figure 2.6 Design Workshop: Systems Design Charrette

and illustrates how the project serves to anticipate and redirect performance in an area where the trend is otherwise in the wrong direction.

Implementation policies should be integrated across each policy tool and stakeholder

To ensure that all stakeholders are engaged and that a full set of policy tools and instruments has been considered, one can create a matrix of stakeholders and policies by category. An example of such a matrix is presented in table 2.1. The various policy tools and instruments are listed across the top, and the stakeholders down the left side. Developing such a matrix is the output of a collaborative exercise based on a shared planning framework. The matrix is a tool for strategic planning and also a way for any collaborative working group to visualize the potential of teamwork. Each stakeholder tends to have diff erent levers of control or infl uence, and these produce diff erent, but complementary actions for implementation.

Conducting a Regional Systems Design Charrette

At every tier, a collaborative committee provides an important institutional structure for promoting and facilitating integrated design. Unlike the traditional planning and design process (which begins with a small team led by an architect, planner, or engineer who is later joined by experts as needed), integrated design engages a wide range of specialists, local stakeholders, and partners at early stages. The objective is to use the expertise to infl uence seminal design decisions before opportunities are constrained and to fi nd the synergies and outof-the-box solutions that lead to practical and aff ordable responses.

The prior existence of a formal collaboration process among senior decision makers means that the groups are likely to be more comfortable with participation in the integrated design process. Ideally, the collaborative committee will agree that design workshops are worthwhile and will contribute their best designers. The collaborative agreements may also ensure that the results of such workshops are properly assessed and integrated into fi nal project plans.

Many kinds of design workshops may be used to facilitate the Eco2 pathway. One of the most important kinds of workshops is the systems design charrette (fi gure 2.6). A charrette is an intensive workshop that may last four to seven days and that typically brings together a diverse group of specialists, designers, and residents. During the charrette, a number of small mixed teams work side by side, day after day, with occasional interaction with each other and with scheduled visits by the public and respected personalities.

Techniques for conducting design charrettes have evolved over the past few years. Initially, the charrette was a tool used primarily to stimulate creative design solutions in building form and the use of interior space. A new building or group of buildings would be drawn in various confi gurations with input from many experts. More recently, the techniques have been applied to entire neighborhoods, cities, and regions. The results have been excellent. Larger spatial areas may be treated as threedimensional spaces with attention given to

Figure 2.6 Design Workshop: Systems Design Charette

Source: Photo by Sebastian Moffatt.