Urbanism
Here’s how we compiled our 2026 Quality of Life Survey
Keen to know the questions that we ask Monocle correspondents and the data we used to compile this year’s results? Read on.
Latest in Monocle Radio
Latest
Seventy and soaring: Singapore is helping its older citizens age well by teaching them parkour
Countries with ageing populations are busily searching for ways to help their people age gracefully. Singapore has a plan in place that’s proceeding in leaps and bounds.
Why Copenhagen’s design culture is central to its high quality of life
Copenhagen consistently ranks highly on Monocle’s annual Quality of Life survey. The listing appears in our out-now July/August issue, in which the Danish capital comes in second place. Key to its success as a liveable city…
The world’s biggest architects have given ‘ugly’ Milan an urban makeover. Is it enough?
The Lombard capital’s bold ambition to host various urban centres where locals can live, work and thrive is shaping up nicely.
Listen up! For cities to thrive, they need to sound as good as they look
Noise pollution in urban environments is on the rise but better acoustic planning could help to silence the issue.
A local’s guide to the best swimming spots in Vienna
It was only my second week in Vienna when a resident took me to swim in the Danube. It was an experience that moved me – quite literally. After relocating to the Austrian capital,…
The sounds of Tokyo have stories to tell – if you learn to listen
The Familymart jingle, train-station melodies and temple bells tell a story of Japan’s past and present.
From plot to plate: Berlin’s restaurants are relishing in ingredients from the city’s allotments
Berlin’s ‘brutal lokal’ movement promotes growing, raising and foraging food from the region. Now the city’s best restaurants are getting behind it too.
How Tokyo made it to the top of Monocle’s 2026 Quality of Life Survey
Our Tokyo bureau chief tells us about daily life in the calm, clean and ambitious Japanese capital.
Good cities point the wayfaring stranger in the right direction
Wayfinding is an art form and one too often neglected. There is a whole industry built around this craft that seeks to manoeuvre us around airports, hospitals and cities using signs, graphics and clever…
How to cool cities naturally, without resorting to air conditioning
Humanity has adapted to environmental challenges. But to mitigate the effects of a warming world, cities must look to the past to glimpse a better future.
