NCI recently received this inquiry by email. We thought the answer would be useful for others visiting this website.
The answer depends on the scope of the charrette, however, budgets should always be considered early on. A major goal of the charrette and NCI Dynamic Planning is to reduce rework. This usually means that budgets are discussed at some level throughout the project. The question we always ask in regard to when to include any data, analysis, design and people, is do you risk substantial rework when they come too late? If so, then include them early and often.
1 response so far ↓
1 Stephen Plunkard, FASLA // Aug 13, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Project budgeting is often perceived as a block to creativity but it should be viewed as just another category or criteria that goes into developing meaningful solutions. One of the criticisms that I have heard of charrette results is that they are often unrealistic and well beyond a communities financial capacity. This can easily be overcome gross all-encompassing budgets at the begining of the process and then checking in at each phase of the charrette to refine the budget. The goal should be hit a number that will include the most advanced yet acceptable solution tempered by the appropriate social, environmental, planning, political and economic criteria — including the capacity of the stakeholders to fund the solutions.