The Al Aqaba West Bank Charrette Booklet, an account based roughly on my daily blog, is now available. I was the sole designer/planner so I enlisted assistance from my eclectic group to draw the village plan by hand. The house designs were developed primarily by a Ramallah architect, Hani Hassen, who attended much of the charrette and worked with input from the villagers and crew. Because of the shoestring budget and logistical challenges (remote location, no printing, intermittent internet, etc.), the homes, which the families loved, were CADed in Hani’s office.
The tendency to emulate Western development represents a strong force against the weaker force of traditional urbanism, thus the need for new urbanists in both fragile places like Al Aqaba and in repairing Palestinian and Israeli sprawl. Hopefully, we will return soon. For example, Ramallah (image) continues to sprawl out on it’s ridge lines and wide paved streets lined with stucco’d mcmansions, flanked by the Israeli settlements marching in from the west. The Israeli settlements represent multiple challenges.
In terms of working with limited assets, I recommended that we should be ready for and competent to execute a plan by candlelight or lantern if necessary. A few years ago, we held a charrette in a tent with a generator because no one would provide a space in Santa Ynez for an affordable, mixed-use project studio. We may find ourselves with more of these opportunities in the future.
October 12, 2011, 10:00-11:30 am PDT (1:00-2:30 pm EDT)
Note: after live webinar date a recording will be available
Overview
The range of interactive planning software and social networking media is dizzying. This webinar will show how planners are using social media and web-based participation tools to increase the number and diversity of people engaged in charrettes. Using current case studies, we will also show how high-tech tools can improve the traditional “high-touch” or hands-on charrette by gathering more information and providing more feedback—all in real time.
How can you use Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and blogs to promote meaningful stakeholder involvement?
How to combine high-tech tools with hands-on workshop exercises?
How to use social media safely, avoiding uncivil conversations or dominance by any one group?
How to use the web in concert with social media tools to increase meeting participation?
Presenters
Bill Lennertz, Executive Director, National Charrette Institute
Ken Snyder, President, PlaceMatters
September 16th, 2011 by Bill Lennertz · Comments Off
There is an exciting trend occurring with charrettes for projects that link public health and community planning. The people working in public health are increasing playing a key role in neighborhood and comprehensive planning by providing important metrics linking the impacts of land and transportation planning decisions to public health.
Last month NCI conducted NCI Charrette System and NCI Charrette Management and Facilitation Certificate trainings for the Rhode Island Department of Health. The pilot project, Healthy Places by Design, is funded by the Center for Disease Control and focuses on infusing town comprehensive plans with policies that support public health. Staff from three RI towns participated in the week-long intensive trainings where they first created detailed plans for stakeholder outreach and base data collection then drafted a project roadmap and detailed charrette schedules ( see complete training agenda). All three charrettes will be conducted before the end of the year.
The goal of the charrettes is to establish a shared community vision as the basis for the comprehensive plans. These charrettes will use hypothetical urban design scenarios to investigate and illustrate the key planning issues for the comprehensive plans. The plans will have special emphasis on planning decisions that effect public health such as healthy food, safe walking and cycling to schools.
September 1st, 2011 by Heidi Haberbush · Comments Off
October 10-12th and 13-14th 2011
We are very pleased to announce that the Centre for Sustainable Communities and our partners at Parsons Brinckerhoff, Turnberry and the BRE are offering the next round of our National Charrette Institute (NCI) accredited charrette training in Scotland in the week starting the 10th October 2011.
The Scottish Government has recently announced its intention to support a programme of mainstreaming of charrette style working throughout Scotland – and our two extremely topical and practically focused courses will provide participants with the skills to successfully engage with this mainstreaming activity, or simply to commission or run a charrette in any location.
The NCI Charrette System™ course provides participants with the skills they need to manage a successful charrette process, while the NCI Charrette Management and Facilitation™ course builds on this strong base to add in additional delivery skills. Both courses feature hands-on exercises focused on a number of case studies of relevant charrette projects from Scotland. These will be augmented by a “clinic” session at the end of each course where participants will have the opportunity to briefly describe their situation and questions, and get input from the trainers and other participants.
These will be augmented by a ‘clinic’ session at the end of each course where participants will have the opportunity to briefly describe their situation and questions, and get input from the trainers and other participants.
When?
The course will run for 3 days.
Date: 10-12 October 2011
Time: 09.00 to 16.30
Where?
Edinburgh, Scotland. The venue has been very kindly provided by RICS Scotland and is at 9 Manor Place, Edinburgh, close to Haymarket Station
Cost
£795 (excl VAT) This includes all course materials, refreshments and lunch.
Your Certificate
Participants successfully completing the NCI Charrette System course will be awarded the NCI Charrette System™ Certificate. Those successfully completing both courses will be awarded the advanced NCI Charrette Management and Facilitation™ Certificate.
Booking
Please contact John Conlon at j.conlon@herts.ac.uk or register and pay online here.
(Select ‘Internal Non-Teaching Dept’ from the list)
August 30th, 2011 by Heidi Haberbush · Comments Off
20% off and free shipping through 8/31 on The Charrette Handbook, NCI Charrette Manager’s Binder, NCI Charrette Planner and Manager Forms Kits, and NCI Charrette System: Stories of Community Transformation documentary DVD. See our products pages here for further details.
**Use code: SUMMER
What better cause is there for a charrette than the post-disaster period when recovery planning must be done quickly? Post-disaster work involves lots of stakeholders, each with their individual missions who must now work in concert to assist the community in their recovery and rebuilding. The NCI Charrette System™ kick-starts the rebuilding effort through a collaborative team effort that compresses a year of work into a few months.
Last week NCI facilitated on-the-job charrette training for tornado stricken Jefferson County Alabama. Enterprise Green Communities sponsored the week-long event. The training was attended by county planners, staff from FEMA, United Way, Jefferson County Emergency Management, Birmingham Urban League, Collaborative Communities, and Mission Birmingham. At the core of the training was the NCI Project Start-up Intensive, during which the group created project guiding principles, objectives and measures, analyzed stakeholders and drafted charrette system roadmaps and schedules for the communities of Concord, McDonald Chapel and North Smithfield. The directive was to complete data gathering, two pre-charrette public meetings plus the charrette, and deliver a recovery plan in just three months. The group also received charrette management training and a crash course in public meeting facilitation.
Charrettes have recently been used by DPZ to design housing for the earthquake recovery in Haiti as well as in New Orleans. The Mississippi Renewal charrette, held four weeks after Hurricane Katrina and led by the Congress for the New Urbanism, involved over 200 local and national professionals to create recovery plans for the 11 affected Mississippi cities and town.
August 10th, 2011 by Heidi Haberbush · Comments Off
Vancouver, BC Early Registration Discounts End this Friday, 8/12
Come to beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia this September and gain both NCI certificates. This is the last opportunity to take both the NCI Charrette System™ and Charrette Management and Facilitation™ certificate trainings on the west coast this year. The courses will be held at TransLink headquarters with easy access to vibrant downtown Vancouver.**Early registration ends 8/12/11**
These trainings and all live webinars are all accredited with the AIA for continuing education system (CES) units, with the AICP for certification maintenance (CM) credits, and the ASLA for LA CES professional development hours (PDH). The Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP) will allocate CPL credits for this training. NCI is working with the The Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA) and Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) to determine whether CE credits will be allocated on a per province basis. If you have questions about credits in a specific province please contact us at info@charretteinstitute.org.
I just returned from a week-long charrette in the village of Al Aqaba in the Palestine West Bank to design new houses for very poor, displaced, and infirm families, some living as multiple families in a small home, and to develop a Village Plan for its long term growth from a tiny hamlet subject to periodic demolition (it’s entry road was recently torn up) to a resilient, healthy, and relatively self-sufficient settlement. The international charrette team, mostly volunteer, was assembled and sponsored by Rebuilding Alliance, an NGO led by Donna Baranski-Walker, who has built a kindergarten and a business space both in operation in Al Aqaba, and both under threat of demolition. Al Aqaba mayor Haj Sami, a paraplegic from age 16 from an accidental shooting by Israeli troops during training, has been a tireless advocate for peaceful coexistence for his people in general, and specifically, for the villagers of Al Aqaba. He still suffers daily from a bullet lodged near his heart, but is pained more by the continual threats of demolition that appear to coincide with the construction of new, illegal settlements. I spoke with Israelis who oppose this policy but the current government seems determined to control and occupy the West Bank in this fashion. As a former USMC combat veteran, I’ve personally experienced the damage caused by military occupation.
However, building sustainable and resilient communities should transcend politics; nature continues to ignore borders and politics. To this end, we intend to continue our efforts to help design, finance, and build homes and supporting structures enlisting the assistance of others, including Israelis, Palestinians, and Americans. My last evening in Ramallah, the team dined in the home of Sameh and Nada Abboushi, he a retired but very active architect and she, sister of activist Hanan Ashrawi. Nada developed a successful children’s music school in the city that sends young, talented musicians to play around the world. With Sameh, charrette architect Hanni Hassen, urban scholar Besim Hakim, and others, we intend to promote traditional and alternative, adaptive building design in the region. I believe that, in order to demonstrate to both Palestinian and Israeli architects, engineers, policy-makers, builders, and the public, we must build structures that can use local materials and labor, to prove their economic, environmental, social, and aesthetic value. I use “we” but it will be primarily the Palestinians who walk the talk. For me, this effort allows us to serve in a direct and meaningful way, without becoming consumed in the tensions of a political struggle that’s been unfolding for decades. Of course, I get to leave at the end of the day.
We will charrette debrief this afternoon, sequestered in a delightful old Danish House (DHIP) that a young Danish/US/Palestinian couple operate with their two children. I took an early morning run along a ridge line, partly lined with ostentatious homes that must belong to the wealthier Ramallahians. I found what could almost pass for park – a series of terraces built of stone walls that hold olive trees – this one abandoned but large and, like most of the streets, empty of people at this early hour if they ever visit, but not empty of plastic bags etc. that blow in. But a good enough spot for Qi Gong, since I could look out over much of the hills in the southwestern edge of the city. Ramallah, from the little I’ve seen, is a series of hills not unlike part of Los Angeles, covered by scrub and a few trees, or streets and buildings – not much between. Much of the construction looks decade-recent, mostly concrete and stone veneers.
So, we will debrief today then I will head for the flight back on time with a bit of luck successfully traverse an Israel checkpoint on the way to Ben Gurion Airport for a mid-morning flight.
Last night at dinner, I spoke with Sameh Abboushi, a highly respected architect who lives, and has practiced and taught in Ramallah and the entire region about seeking assistance in bringing traditional town planning and architecture to the West Bank generally, and to the small village of Al Aqaba specifically. As I will be heading back to the US tomorrow, I want to continue the efforts that began, at least for me, with our charrette that commenced over a week ago.
With Sameh, with local architect Hani Hassen, and, perhaps with the assistance of scholar and traditional urbanist Besim Hakim, it may be possible to demonstrate the economic, environmental, social, and aesthetic value of traditional architecture and town planning by designing and building one or more prototypes designed in Al Aqaba, with the assistance of an grant or other source of financing. A small structure would serve this purpose – perhaps a new birthing center, a house, or even a work/live building.
I’m not an expert in this region but I do have a keen interest in assisting Al Aqaba in growing into a resilient and healthy village that can demonstrate the value of both appropriate design and the materials and methods of construction that can be accomplished with a least come local labor.
The charrette ended last night except for a final presentation of the Village Plan to the mayor and remaining team; the sensitive nature of planning in a militarily controlled area subject to be demolished, which, of course he really liked but would like control of the land even better. We included, besides many homes and other uses mentioned earlier, a guest house.
Some post-intensity team interpersonal dynamics but, as the members begin to leave for Ramallah, the US, and other points mostly far and wide, a sadness too. Most poignantly, one of women whose been teaching English and living in the village for about a month, left today. When she pulled away, I saw Mayor Haj Sami turn around in his wheel chair and head a safe distance away to be with his sorrow alone. We all leave, and they all stay, including Haj, in his chair.
A small group of the remaining schlepped over to feed the dogs and noticed one of the villagers planting olive trees so we stopped to visit. On the way back they invited us for tea, as we sat outside with a blood red orange-colored sun making the dirt burnt sienna. We sat on the limestone outcroppings with translations going both ways among the father’s son and presumed brothers and/or cousins; the village is indeed one connected family.
In that fading light, I spoke to the extent possible in English with Haj Sami (who speaks Arabic and fluent Hebrew) as he sat by himself, which I imagine he does quite enough. He explained his frustration with forty years of working for peace despite every obstacle and broken promise; he still does not understand why public supports and sends money for settlement building; I had no answer except that an effective lobbyist cost a lot of money, and that money talks. I didn’t come here because of the politics but I will leave with a much clearer perspective of what it means to live in the west bank as a Palestinian. All the best planning in the world disappears in the face of bulldozers, tanks, and demolition orders.
The charrette was successful. The system worked as it should with proper direction, instruction, and clarity of purpose. I’ve said that we should be able to charrette by candlelight if necessary and, while we maintained electric power, at times that’s all we had, in mid-summer near the Jordan Valley. So, we’re packing up and leaving in the morning. However, the end is truly just the beginning. The follow through to finance and build the first three homes is not just a sign of hope but essential for the village. Beyond that, whether this village survives or not, depends on forces beyond this valley and region.
