Netherlands: state of the nation

Your future starts today. That’s the optimistic message that runs throughout the latest issue of The Entrepreneurs. In it we survey the best places to do business in 2021, from the cities bouncing back from the pandemic to the coastal technology hub riding the wave of success. Plus: start a hotel, open a shop and love the office again.Available at The Monocle Shop

Despite the ubiquity of digital effects in cinema, Berlin’s Studio Babelsberg has preserved the craft of prop making. Its lifelike items continue to appear in some of the biggest movies today. We inspect the studio’s stunning hand-built sets and its museum-like archives.

Monocle’s May issue lifts the lid on our picks of the world’s best-designed buildings and products in our inaugural Design Awards. From big names such as David Chipperfield to small pleasures like electric switches, we celebrate the makers refining our lives. Elsewhere, there’s custom dog food and glamorous grannies – what more could you want?Available now at The Monocle Shop

We explore a New Zealand take on mid-century modern architecture that fused British brutalism with a Scandinavian aesthetic. The simple construction methods of the Christchurch School’s creative homes have endured changing tastes – and earthquakes too.