n. A collaborative planning or design session, often involving interested third parties such as public officials and environmentalists, in which problems relating to a proposed project are discussed and solutions adopted in a limited time frame. [French, light two-wheeled cart, charrette (from the fact that when 19th-century Parisian architecture students submitted their designs for evaluation, the designs were taken to the exhibition place on such a cart, often while the students added finishing touches en route), from Old French, diminutive of char, cart; see CHARIOT.] |
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