From Experience to Transformation: The Importance of Evoking Awe in Luxury’s Transformation Era

Welcome to my monthly musing on a life – and business – spent peering into the world of luxury.

Liminal Luxurian is a newsletter written by Chris Sanderson, co-founder of The Future Laboratory. His monthly updates will be shared on our blog, and you can also subscribe via the LinkedIn newsletterWe'll be sharing his monthly updates on our blog, but you can also join via the LinkedIn newsletter here.

At The Future Laboratory, we anticipated the emergence of a trend towards a new form of engagement – a more purposeful, self-initiated and proactive desire by society to consume the goods, products, brands and services that enabled them to be happier, healthier and wealthier.

We called this the Transformation Era back in 2018 and since then, The Future Laboratory has developed its thinking on the power of transformational engagement, taking into account evolving generational mindsets around what we have termed Neo-collectivism – the desire to put a sense of society above a sense of self. The Ancient Greeks identified this as eudaimonia, the notion that pleasure and contentment come from the flourishing of a society that puts communal wellbeing over self-focused, sensual satisfaction (hedonism).

Throw in the increased interest and empirical data on proprioception (awareness of body position) and we have a journey of transformation that relates to a sense of scale, awe and wonder – all vital parts in an odyssey of personal growth and development. Awe plays a significant role in the continued value of the world of luxury. Awe is a basic state of consciousness. Ordinary things can bring us awe, as well as those big-ticket moments when we encounter the grandness of the natural world or the brilliant complexity of human endeavour.

Published by:

18 December 2025

Author: Chris Sanderson

Image: Amangiri, Utah, digital animation by Visualisation One, a Noë & Associates Studio

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AI Imagery by The Future Laboratory

Luxury is awesome. The transcendence of the everyday functional object into a work of wonder – through its artistry, complexity, beauty and craftsmanship – sits at the heart of traditional luxury. Yet, as we move into a new state of luxury which perceptibly eschews these traditional markers, awe becomes more relevant than ever. The awe pivots to the wonder of time, and the wonder of self – how awe, according to Keltner, makes you feel ‘small, humble and connected’. Awe helps luxury make the transition from a passive engagement with objets de luxe to a new transformational engagement with ourselves through the luxury of time.

This is where the future of the luxury industry lies. I hope you’re now joining up the dots. When we think of spatial or intentional design, we naturally tend to migrate to the awe-inspiring – those grandiose, large-scale spaces that evoke awe simply by dint of their size. And yet, with the concept of proprioception in mind, how we are moved to feel elevated by the humble, small, everyday and mundane space is perhaps a greater challenge that we as designers, architects and creatives must face in the future.

Back to the F**kture with professor Dacher Keltner. Listen to the full episode : https://www.thefuturelaboratory.com/blog/back-to-the-fkture-dacher-keltner

This article was written for Sybarite’s The Future of Experience project : https://thefutureofexperience.com/sign-up/

Awe: The Transformative Power of Everyday Wonder by Dacher Keltner is published by Allen Lane.

‘My hope is that we can better embrace the mindsets of awe – from the vastness of experience to awe in the everyday’

Dacher Keltner, faculty director of the Greater Good Science Center, USA, based at Berkeley, espouses.

From Experience to Transformation: The Importance of Evoking Awe in Luxury’s Transformation Era

‘My hope is that we can better embrace the mindsets of awe – from the vastness of experience to awe in the everyday’

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