What is a Charrette
This program is part of the Center for Community Design and Preservation at the College of Environment and Design at the University of Georgia

Charrette is a French word that translates “little cart.” At the leading architecture school of the 19th century, the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, students would be assigned a tough design problem to work out under pressure of time. They would continue sketching as fast as they could, even as little carts (charrettes) carried their drawing boards away to be judged and graded.
Today, “charrette” has come to describe the rapid, intensive, and creative work session, usually lasting a week or more, in which a design team focuses on a particular design problem and arrives at a collaborative solution. Charrettes are product-oriented. The public charrette is fast becoming a preferred way to face the planning challenges confronting American cities.

Charrettes for New Urbanism, Victor Dover