Awe Is a Design Tool: From Stardust to Specifications

Diane Ackerman studied with astronomer Carl Sagan, who called her a writer who brings science and the humanities together. In The Planets: A Cosmic Pastoral, she collapses distance—between bone and meteor, storm systems and bloodstream—until “elsewhere” disappears.

Once elsewhere disappears, responsibility moves closer. Awe is braided with accountability; wonder is paired with stewardship.

That’s not just poetry. It’s a materials statement.

Steel, glass, gypsum, insulation, concrete—none is neutral. Each product carries carbon, chemistry, labor, and community impact. Writing a specification is not just selecting objects; it’s adding a chapter to a story that will continue long after ribbon-cutting.

For those of us in the built environment, that scope can feel complex—but complexity, when understood, becomes direction. 

Nothing Is “Elsewhere”

Recognizing that nothing is “elsewhere” makes the supply chain visible—from quarry to polymer plant to their neighboring communities. Materials carry biographies: extraction methods, manufacturing conditions, chemical formulation. Because those stories affect human and ecosystem health, the line between building science and social responsibility is thinner than we often admit.

Those realities surface most clearly in moments of substitution and product selection—where intent either holds or quietly shifts. Leadership is measured in the decisions that translate this awareness into action.

Raising the Baseline

Exceptional buildings—the towers that prove what’s possible—draw the spotlight in sustainability discussions. They inspire and stretch the imagination.

But sector-wide change doesn’t occur at the summit; it takes place in standard practice. When thousands of mainstream builds reduce carbon modestly, the cumulative shift reshapes demand across manufacturers and regions. A one-percent improvement applied consistently across a growing portfolio moves more material—and more impact—than a ten-percent leap applied once.

The work now is translation: taking what landmark initiatives demonstrate and making it replicable across building types, budgets, climates, and teams. Progress at scale is coordinated and steady. It shows up in specifications, procurement decisions, and substitution reviews. It becomes visible when sustainability is measured in context—when teams track outcomes consistently and scale improvements across portfolios.

This is how practice transforms markets.

Measuring What Matters

We can’t steward what we can’t describe. In transportation, miles per gallon gave drivers a shared language for efficiency. In buildings, Energy Use Intensity (EUI) provides the same for operational energy. An EUI of 150 tells a very different story for a specialty hospital than for a single-family home; context turns data into understanding.

Materials require the same rigor. The objective is awareness within context—project type, climate, and scale. When teams know where a building stands relative to similar projects, the conversation changes from “Are we flawless?” to “Are we improving?”

Data doesn’t diminish inspired design; it stabilizes it. With a baseline, substitution reviews are evaluative rather than reactive and portfolio discussions strategic rather than anecdotal.

Questions That Move Markets

Wonder isn’t a vibe—it’s disciplined curiosity. It asks:

• What’s in this product?
• What does its documentation reveal?
• How does it compare within its category?
• What happens if we make a different choice?

When these questions are supported by data—confidential benchmarking, anonymized comparisons, and portfolio-level tracking—teams gain meaningful awareness. They can see where their goals stand relative to similar builds and where improvements are possible. 

Leadership here isn’t about flawless outcomes—it’s about steady, intentional progress.

Nothing Is Expendable

Recognizing our connection to the systems that sustain us makes it harder to treat landscapes or communities as expendable. In practice, this means embedding sustainability criteria into procurement standards, engaging manufacturers in reformulation conversations, and tracking patterns across portfolios so lessons from visionary efforts ripple across all builds.

No project achieves 100 percent on every metric. The priority is steady forward momentum through quantitative improvements in carbon, chemistry, and transparency. Multiply that across projects, and incremental gains become lasting impact.

Bridging Systemic Impact and Stewardship

The data is clear: the built environment consumes immense resources—and its impacts on people and ecosystems are measurable.

Curiosity and care, when woven together, turn ambitious sustainability goals into practical decisions. In our work, that braid becomes actionable—pairing curiosity with measurement, inspiration with benchmarking, and vision with verification. From these pairings emerges everyday practice: improving what we can and repeating that discipline across portfolios.

Where Insight Becomes Impact

Stories of awe and responsibility continue in every specification, every decision, and every initiative we touch. The buildings we design will shape communities for generations.

Between curiosity and consequence lies a choice: treat materials as background, or recognize them as consequential. Data insights turn awareness into direction. Direction, applied consistently, becomes impact.

The next project on the drawing board is already writing the story we’ll leave behind.