Chapter 9
Host an Architecture Design Studio

In nineteenth-century France, architecture professors collected students’ projects in wooden carts so they could be easily transported for grading. Of course, nobody was ready for the professor to take their project when the cart came around, but that didn’t stop the professor from taking it anyway. As a result, students followed after the cart, feverishly working en charrette, in the cart, to finish their bridges and buildings, attaching bits of balsa wood and twists of wire as the professor wheeled the cart off to pick up the next student’s project.

In the twenty-first century, charrette is a style of workshop inspired by the idea that more time does not necessarily lead to better designs. Architecture professors in nineteenth-century France knew this, and it’s a great lesson still today. The user experience (UX) community popularized the charrette as the design studio. A design studio encourages group collaboration and has strict time constraints to help the team see a broad range of ideas in a short time frame.

In this chapter, you’re going to learn how to plan and facilitate an architecture design studio. We’ll start with an overview of the design studio method. From there you’ll learn how to facilitate a design studio. Good facilitation, after all, isn’t just good manners—it’s good business. We’ll wrap up the chapter with some tips and hints to ensure your design studio is a huge success.