Design Intelligence Starts With Clearer Conversations

It can be tempting to treat conversations about carbon and sustainable design like a math problem: measure, reduce, repeat. And that work matters. Deeply.

But Lauren Brant’s recent Product Talk conversation with Kenn Busch reminded me that carbon isn’t the whole story. It’s part of a much larger materials narrative that asks designers to think about origin, chemistry, sourcing, performance, reuse, and what happens when a product’s first life is over.

That wider lens feels so relevant heading into Chicago Design Week. Across NeoCon, Fulton Market Design Days, and the surrounding showrooms, designers will see a lot that is new: colors, systems, textures, technologies, and solutions for supporting work, wellness, hospitality, healthcare, education, and community.

Material intelligence can deepen the conversation around those products. It asks specifiers to look beyond first aesthetic impressions and consider the systems behind a product: the resources it draws from, the processes that shape it, the people affected by its production, and the possibilities it may hold beyond initial installation.

“Material intelligence asks specifiers to look beyond first aesthetic impressions and consider the systems behind a product.”

You’ll see that theme threading through this issue. Our Chicago Design Week preview looks at products built for purpose—not only through visual appeal, but through performance, well-being, adaptability, and better alignment with how spaces are used. Our materiality trends report reveals why designers and manufacturers need clearer conversations about what products are made of, where they come from, and what claims really mean. Perkins&Will’s values-driven design discussion expands sustainability into health, equity, ecological literacy, and more disciplined decision-making systems. And Gensler’s headquarters for Reverb demonstrates how adaptive reuse can turn an existing industrial structure into a workplace rooted in culture, memory, and future use.

These stories suggest that purposeful design is something the industry will keep redefining as materials science advances, supply chains become more transparent, manufacturing practices evolve, and expectations around human and environmental impact grow more urgent.

That evolution will require more than better products. It will require better questions. What materials deserve to be used more often and which ones more carefully? What does responsible sourcing look like beyond marketing claims? Where can familiar materials perform in new ways? When the “best” answer isn’t obvious, how do we make the most informed choice available?

This is not a demand to make design decisions heavier than they already are. It’s a call to recognize the influence of specification—the power to ask, compare, challenge, and shift demand toward products and practices that serve people and the planet with greater intention.

What questions will you be inspired to ask during Chicago Design Week? Later on, I’d love to hear what turned up for you.