Blog  December 13, 2011

MOVE Charrette: Presentation day at EBW

Geoff Cape speaks during a charrette team's presentation (Photo: Bill Wilson)

On November 20, Evergreen and the Institute without Boundaries (IwB) presented the early results from a series of “charrettes” for generating innovative ideas for creating a sustainable transportation system.

More than 200 transit innovators were on hand at the presentation event, including City of Toronto councillor Adam Vaughan, Metrolinx’s policy and planning director, Daniel Haufschild, as well as Sue Zielinski, managing director at SMART, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

As part of the charrettes, ten interdisciplinary teams were each tasked with finding a creative solution for a different transportation challenge. The results will help set the stage for MOVE: The Transportation Expo, to be held at EBW from May–October 2012.

The "Mega Metro" charrette team (Photo: Bill Wilson)

Each team included a facilitator, lead designer, transportation expert and various professionals and students in disciplines ranging from graphic design and illustration to urban planning, architecture and industrial design. A team reporter documented each charrette, capturing the creative process for future publication. Teams also met with key stakeholders for their challenge and received insight, support and feedback from advisors chosen for their knowledge of the specific challenge, site and community.

Leading food expert Wayne Roberts, a charrette participant, offered some key first-hand insight into the process with his recent article in NOW. You can also read about charrette challenge #1, Beyond the Car, in an earlier article from Treehugger's Lloyd Alter.

The proposals will be further developed and displayed at the MOVE Expo, and in the spring issue of Spacing Magazine. You can also learn about some of the issues and outcomes the groups explored by reading their first-hand accounts in our series of charrette blogs.

Geoff Cape with a map from a charrette proposal (Photo: Bill Wilson)