The French word, "Charrette" means "little cart" and is used to describe the final intense work effort expended by art and architecture students to meet a project deadline. At the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris during the 19th century, proctors circulated with carts to collect final drawings while the students frantically put finishing touches on their work.

Today, a Charrette is a collaborative process for empowering people who are important to a project to work together and support the results. A Charrette is a rigorous, inclusive, cross- disciplinary, collaborative, and values and vision- driven process that produces the strategies and implementation documents for complex and difficult planning and design projects. Charrettes can be used virtually any time a product needs to be created or designed. Some Charrettes focus on regional or local public and private land planning and development, while others focus on the design of public and private buildings.