Every new year needs a fresh manifesto, so while you’re kicked back, lying low, chasing the sun or even hard at it, we’ve developed a pick and mix of ideas to create your own to-do list for a happy 2009. If you’re partic…
Tuesday 17 November
A few months ago, the legendary film director Ingmar Bergman’s possessions were sold to the highest bidder by the Swedish auction house Bukowskis.
Wednesday 7 March
A friend from my home country got stopped in central London. A concerned couple was worried about my Finnish friend looking so deeply gloomy.
The Alpa has become a cult camera for professionals, thanks to its razor-sharp detail and attractive finish. But it wasn’t always such a success story after the brand disappeared altogether in the 1990s. Monocle talks to…
Monday 21 January
To coincide with Japan's Coming of Age Day, we ask how much Japanese youth have to celebrate.
Germany is the eighth biggest exporter of wine, shipping 280 million litres in 2005; but it’s also the world’s largest importer of wine, buying 1.19 billion litres the same year. Like France, the country has struggled…
An ode to those tucked-away streets of the world that seem to have their own poetry and swagger. Our design editor writes about the thoroughfares that have the capacity to touch the heart and soul.
In today’s world of throwaway consumerism, it’s good to know there are still tradesmen out there who pride themselves on giving your cherished possessions a new lease of life – from a cobbler in Milan who will lovingly…
Dundee is a key hub for the world’s computer games industry. And not just any games. The city’s software houses are responsible for some of the most violent titles ever produced, including *Grand Theft Auto*. Why Dundee?…
The people of Yogyakarta are a contented lot and they have good reason. The city is not only the cultural heart of Java but thanks to leaders who have stamped out corruption, it’s a vibrant business centre too.
We do a little late-night shopping in Tokyo, where no matter what the time is, there’s always somewhere for a quick, post-night-on-the-tiles pick-me-up.
The nation that had no TV until 10 years ago and is famous for using its Gross National Happiness index as a measure of success rather than GDP, has been a democracy for just over a year. Monocle talks to its prime minister…
As Monocle notches up two years, we take a look back at where we started and unveil some subtle tweaks to our brand for volume 03. We’ve always celebrated small businesses that manufacture at home and in an ever-more hom…
Lo-skolen was established in the tradition of Denmark’s folk schools, set up to provide courses for workers without access to university education. The school’s architects Jarl Heger and Karen & Ebbe Clemmensen designed…
Åland, an archipelago in Scandinavia, is hailed as a model for how to create a harmonious “nation” – without giving it full independence – academics and politicians even studied it as a model for Kosovo. The prosperous…
Tuesday 11 May
It is not every day that some of Israel’s harshest critics raise their hands in favour of the Jewish State.
Monday 29 March
In the Atlantic Coast city of Rennes last weekend, an impressive line up of French luminaries gathered for what the organiser, Libération newspaper, described as “a laboratory of the imagination, of a collective happiness…
Tuesday 5 January
Cuba’s bakers will be working overtime on Sunday, making cakes for the nation’s women.
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