Neighbourhood: Karaköy

It's not all bad news on the streets of Madrid. The economic crisis is stirring a new generation of young, creative entrepreneurs into action - and the city is undergoing a refreshing and very visible transformation as a result. As bold new retail, hospitality and co-working initiatives turn traditional concepts on their head, Monocle sits down with some of the progressive voices leading the charge.

Investment from Beijing and abroad has brought a boom to Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province. Monocle visits the city to gauge its progress.

These are the five cities that have made our pinboard and deserve our mention even if they did not appear in our Quality of Life index. Whether it be for the transformation they have seen over recent years, the warm and friendly residents or the local cuisine, these places win in the simple living stakes.

For a small city, Zürich’s 50 museums, theatres and concert halls are a subtle hint that there’s more than beautiful architecture, clean living and stunning scenery in Monocle’s favourite city of 2012. A strict corporate culture with a village-style feel that means Zürich is a microcosm of a well-balanced city that larger neighbours could learn from.

The West Bengali city is at a crossroads. On the one hand Kolkata wants to re-establish the look and feel of its Raj glory days. On the other, it wants to brand itself as a contemporary culture and business gate-way open to the east.

Continuing our series on neighbourhoods we witness the transformation of a turbulent area in Downtown Johannesburg into a lively, creative community.

George Town, on the Malaysian island of Penang, is a former British trading outpost rich with post-colonial charm. Now it’s drawing in a new batch of entrepreneurs who are converting old shop-houses into everything from homes and hotels to cafés and galleries. Monocle visits the city to witness its property revitalisation.

Monocle’s favourite cities combine small-scale neighbourhoods with green spaces, but not all cities were built with the right foundations for future growth and sustainability. We champion four urban innovators who see potential in derelict spaces and find creative approaches to make some of the worlds more challenging neighbourhoods bloom into richer and more pleasant places to stay.

Greece’s finances are in a dire state, and its government under pressure. The latest EU bailout package has staved off economic collapse for now, but unemployment is at a record high and many Greeks are feeling the effects. In Athens though, there’s a group of people busy at work, moving forward despite the situation, starting creative enterprises and cultural centres – even new hotels. Monocle heads to the Greek capital to meet a few of them.

Buenos Aires, Casablanca, Kagoshima, Rome and Seoul are never going to make the top 25 of our Liveable Cities index but despite their various impediments – from creaking services to epic traffic problems – they are all great in their own way.

Helsinki claims the number 1 spot in Monocle’s 2011 Quality of Life survey, which ranks the top 25 cities in the world to call home. Rising from fifth position in 2010, Helsinki outperformed Zürich at number 2 and Copenhagen at number 3 to claim the mantle as the world’s most liveable city. An unorthodox but well-deserving champion, the Finnish capital stands out for its fundamental courage to rethink its urban ambitions, and for possessing the talent, ideas and guts to pull it off.

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 creatively about the reconstruction process in the hopes of building a better Japan. Gabriel Leigh heads to Tohoku to see what’s shaping up.

Monocle explores how Beirut's redevelopment has become a threat to the city's historic streets and neighbourhoods.

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 culture of fear and rampant corruption.

The ritual of hammam has played an important role in the region for millennia. Visiting Turkish baths for the first time can be intimidating, so let Monocle be your guide. Join us as we glide from the hot room to the cold room via a foam massage, and plunge into this living part of Turkish history.

The second edition of the Istanbul Design Biennial distilled the city’s disparate cultural influences into a single powerful event. Monocle films visited to discover the region's desire to rewrite its contemporary design manifesto.

With the city’s bid to host the 2020 Olympics in full swing, the fabric of Istanbul is shaping up. We meet the cultural and commercial players flexing their muscles.

A wave of Arab tourism is washing over Istanbul - and it's all because of racy Turkish soap operas. Last season Noor, the most popular, was watched by 85 million people across the Arab world. Monocle sets off to the Bosphorous to join the guided tour for avid viewers wishing to live the dream.

Istanbul, a thriving megacity at the crossroads between East and West, is at a critical moment in its long and rich history. Monocle reports from the Urban Age conference, organised by the London School of Economics and Deutsche Bank's Alfred Herrhausen Society where experts discussed the future of this unique Turkish city and of the world's cities in general.

Every night the TransAsya Express departs from Istanbul heading for Tehran. It takes three days and two nights to reach its destination, time enough for you to leave the European lifestyle of western Turkey far behind. Saul Taylor took the train as far as Van in the Kurdish corner of the country. This is the story of Monocle's journey on the slow train east.