We recently received an inquiry from Ralph Kurtz, AIA. He writes: How is your charrette process different from the CRS “squatters” process? Or is it simply old wine in new bottles?

Perhaps not old wine, but rather the latest vintage with complexities reflective of the current environment. The planning environment that produced the 1948 CRS vintage squatter was far simpler than today’s environment in terms of the numbers of variables, the required specialties and stakeholders. 1948 was a great year for squatters but the model has gone through considerable change since then.

When we began NCI, one of our first tasks was to define the charrette process in clear terms. We knew that preparation and follow through were key to a successful project and began talking about the entire project process as “Dynamic Planning” with the charrette as the central, pivotal event. NCI charrettes and NCI Dynamic Planning have roots in a variety of projects and processes that evolved over time. We made a point to research this to the best of our abilities while writing The Charrette Handbook and include a history of the charrette process including relevant projects in chapter two. Indeed, one of the earliest processes of relevance that we found in the United States was the first Caudill Rowlett Scott (CRS) Squatter in 1948. That first project in Blackwell, OK and its origin are described on page 18 of The Charrette Handbook. The squatter approach continues to be used today as do a number of processes, many by architects, which may be called charrettes, workshops or other names. The key features common to all of these successful processes are collaboration, working on-site for multiple days, and the use of multi-disciplinary teams. NCI has defined our Dynamic Planning process in terms of ten strategies, including these, which we believe are essential to successful projects. For more on our strategies and process definition see our NCI Dynamic Planning page and What is a Charrette? page.