A charrette is a series of intensive planning and design sessions where citizens, architects, planners, designers and others collaborate to create a vision and plan for future development.  These forums have the unique advantage of giving designers immediate feedback and discussion between the community and the designers. Throughout the charrette, formal and informal meetings are held and updates to the plan are presented.

The job of the renderer during the charrette process is to help illustrate the ideas and concepts created during the design process. Drawings must be produced quickly, and yet stay faithful to the unique sense of place and spirit of the design concepts.