"By its nature, a metropolis provides what otherwise could be given only by traveling; namely, the strange"
— Jane Jacobs
Through the Cities of Awe Lab we advance the understanding of awe in public life and make it actionable.
We do this by studying the relationship between awe and public life across diverse cultural contexts and urban environments. We explore where and how awe appears in cities, how it can be nurtured, and how it influences people and communities over time, building evidence for more wonder-filled experiences. This work begins with a set of core questions.
How do moments of awe shape public life?
When does public life support experiences of awe?
What types of shared spaces and environments make these experiences possible?
APPROACH
We learn by doing. We map the relationship between awe and public life across three interconnected angles: as a research question, a design challenge, and an ongoing practice of public engagement.
Research
We examine how awe shows up in public life and what it does for people’s health, trust, and resilience. We focus on measuring what is often considered hard to measure, drawing on peer-reviewed studies, citizen science, and place-based data. We ask how shared experiences or witnessing moral beauty influences people across diverse cultures. We also explore how these experiences are nurtured, who has access to them, what conditions make them possible.
Design
We work with a wide range of practitioners that include thinkers, tinkerers, doers, to translate evidence into action. This means actively testing how awe can be embedded within the systems that shape public life across cultures and geographies. We are examining how cities are designed, governed, and managed, and how an evidence-based understanding of awe and public life can inform and influence these systems.
Engagement
We make tools, stories, and scientific insights accessible so they can be adapted to different local contexts. Through events, podcasts, publications, and other shared platforms, we create openings to notice how awe shows up in public life. Our goal is to support a broader understanding of awe so that many of us can experience this feeling and reflect on how it affects us as individuals and as a community.
PARTNERS
The Cities of Awe Lab is a collaborative initiative between Gehl, University of California, Berkeley, and The Gambrell Foundation. Together we bring complementary strengths to advance the science, design, and cultural practice of awe in public life. Through research, experimentation, and global collaboration, the Lab’s goal is to imagine and push for a more connected and meaningful urban life for all.
Gehl brings decades of global experience in human-centered urban design and strategy. Building on the work of Jan Gehl, the practice has helped shape a movement around public life in cities, developing methods to measure lived experience in public space and embedding people-first thinking into urban planning. Their work has influenced how cities design streets, public spaces, and everyday environments to better support human connection and well-being.
UC Berkeley contributes leading scientific research on awe, emotion, well-being, and social connection, particularly through the Social Interaction Lab and the Greater Good Science Center (GGSC). For nearly 25 years, GGSC has played a key role in translating research on the science of a meaningful life into practical tools and insights that support well-being and compassionate communities around the world.
The Gambrell Foundation brings a philanthropic lens, reimagining funding as a catalyst for thriving communities. As a co-founder and core funder of the Cities of Awe Lab, we invest in initiatives that strengthen belonging, relationships, and purpose, through interdisciplinary collaborations that turn research and ideas into real-world experiments that foster connection, community well-being, and human flourishing.