Awe field guide
The Awe field guide is a tool for uncovering moments of wonder embedded in everyday urban life. By slowing down and observing intentionally, we begin to see what makes a place meaningful, connective, and inspiring. This tool is to help transform lived experience transform insight.
What you gain from using this guide
Experiential
A new way of seeing: You begin to notice details, atmospheres, and interactions that may have previously gone unnoticed.
A deeper sensory awareness: You tune into sound, texture, light, movement, and social energy expanding how you experience public space.
A personal record of meaning: You leave with documented reflections, field notes, and spatial impressions that capture how a place feels, not just how it functions.
A sense of connection: You may feel more connected to your neighborhood, to others, or to something larger than yourself.
Data + Insights
Qualitative spatial data: The awe field guide captures lived experience emotional, sensory, and social dimensions often missing from traditional urban analysis.
Patterns of meaning: Across multiple walks, recurring themes emerge: nature, collective energy, design details, moral beauty, ritual, music, epiphanies.
Insight for design: These observations reveal what spatial and social qualities generate awe informing how we shape public spaces that support well-being and connection.
A shared vocabulary: The tool creates a language for discussing wonder, not just infrastructure allowing teams and communities to talk about emotional impact alongside function.
Preview the tool
How to make a field guide booklet
Follow the instructions to have a field guide in booklet format. Booklets are easier for taking tools out in the field. If you prefer to print regular pages, that works too, just download and hit print.
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Download the document and print from Adobe Acrobat (free), select ‘Booklet’ in Page Sizing & Handling
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Stack all sheets and fold them together in half along the center line
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Staple along the fold line to bind the booklet.
