In tough economic times, shops will need something special to keep customers. Monocle’s new star retailers are a supermarket with a concierge, a childrenswear store with staff chosen for their childcare skills, and a boo…
In a world of disposable fashion and bad service, there are some stores that do get it right, and are seeing their profits boom. We profile five retail giants that should act as benchmarks for other floundering businesses…
In the first edition of Monocle's Design Dialogues, an intimate series of discussions on key design issues, we throw the spotlight on the future of the workplace.
The Gantenbein Winery, in Fläsch, Switzerland, has been the prototype for an entirely new approach to bricklaying: using modified industrial robots. Traditionally, the promise of industrial robots has been that they would…
As the pace of technology speeds on full-throttle, four media visionaries describe how new developments will influence how we produce and consume news in 2011. And while they may have different views, one thing’s agreed:…
The Japanese city of Kyoto is renowned for its ancient traditions. But a crop of young designers is making sure it’s also set to become one of the nation’s creative hubs of the future.
A special report on the state of global retail and how to go about fixing it.
From robotic nurses to submersible aircraft, the stuff of science fiction is close to becoming a reality. Monocle tracks down five innovative high-tech firms that are on the brink of achieving great things in 2009.
There’s a real sense that we are entering a new era, with a fresh, sharp president in the White House and an economy in flux. Here five leading thinkers, writers and academics – Alain de Botton, Paula Scher, Andrew J Bac…
We’ve asked five artists, musicians and writers to tell us what they’ll be up to in the coming year and what will keep their creative juices flowing.
Global leaders may be lacking in ambition but that hasn’t stopped us doing the heavy lifting for them. Monocle presents 10 grand projects that would make a big difference.
Menswear sales are still recovering from a dip in 2005, but this season’s Pitti Uomo was attended by 21,000 buyers with significant growth in eastern European and Indian markets. And its fashions were similarly forward…
Making tortoiseshell glasses by hand is a rare and exacting skill. One of the last practitioners, Maison Bonnet, is making sure the art survives, thanks to its keen young apprentice.
Baku’s skyline is marking out the Azerbaijani capital as a city for the 21st century, with its five-star hotels and Zaha Hadid-designed arts centre, but there’s still much work to do to combat its 20th-century
Can “big food” companies help chart a fresh future for food retail? Or are supermarkets always bad?
The national identity of countries can shift radically and at a speed that leaves their inhabitants gasping: think of the former Soviet Union. Here leading thinkers consider what might, or should, change in the way nations…
Meet the entrepreneurs building a future for Egypt post-Mubarak. Each is attempting to turn crisis into opportunity and help spark a much-needed national economic recovery.
Sichuan was one of China’s poorest provinces until investment from Beijing and abroad brought boom times to its capital. Chengdu and its ‘pambassadors’ went on a global sales offensive.
Two months after a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami devastated the Tohoku region of Japan, the nation is beginning to pick up the pieces. Looking to the future are a number of architects and designers thinking creati…
Tuesday 29 May
Post it. This little expression has taken on an entirely new meaning in the last couple of years.
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