Community based environmental design: Empowering local expertise in design charrettes

Planning for climate change adaptation aims to increase adaptive capacity and resilience in communities, but current spatial planning and design projects often neglect the creative power and expertise available in the communities they ostensibly serve. This results in communities that are poorly prepared for the future, and especially the uncertainty of future climate change impacts. This is partly caused by historically determined design processes that leave little room for an enhanced role for community in designing, and deciding, their own future. The design charrette approach is an intensive design-based way to empower local knowledge. In the design charrette process community members and local experts are mixed with academics, designers and regional policy makers. As a group they design and model a desired future for their community, which can as a result reach a higher adaptive capacity that is inherently more resilient and better capable of dealing with unforeseeable climate impacts. The impact of the charrette is twofold. Firstly, the normal social constellations change as community members, with different interests, are connected through new tools for collaboration and exchange. Secondly, the design propositions imply spatial transformations in the city or town.