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.

In a globalised market flooded with faux-artisan branding, real craftsmen are endangered. But in Kyoto, where tradition rules, a new initiative is refreshing generations-old techniques to bring Japanese craft to a worldwide…

Along with clean hospitals and punctual buses, our cities should have a cosy feel to them. Let’s hear it for warm street lighting, pristine parks and cobbled back alleys.

Visit Munich or Melbourne, Seattle or Singapore and you’ll come across ‘almost perfect’ places to live. However, at Monocle we’ve created the ideal mansion block, with nothing omitted in its design. Now, who’s going to…

There’s nothing that irritates architects more than the word ‘cosy’. We believe they should rethink their view. Whether it’s a grand urban master plan or simple apartment block, the vast majority of us are looking for…