Monocle Weekend
Edition: Saturday

This week we make our way through the congested mire known as Los Angeles International Airport’s ‘LAX-It’ pick-up pen, round up three series worth a binge and the Concierge zips around Zaragoza. But first, Andrew Tuck takes stock of a summit in Stockholm designed to unleash the Nordics’ potential.

You can tell from the softening light that autumn is waiting in the wings. In a few weeks wardrobes will change, lives will slowly shift indoors. But, here in northern Europe, summer isn’t quite ready to move offstage just yet. This week I headed to a blue-sky Stockholm with my colleague Josh Fehnert to attend Unleashed, a new annual summit organised by Stockholms Handelskammare (the chamber of commerce). Its aim was to gather business leaders, thinkers, academics and even some magazine journalists to look at how, well, to unleash the Nordic region’s potential in everything from environmental action to defence, urbanism to civil society.

The event was happening at a time when some Swedes are a little less confident about life than they once were. Violent crime, challenges around immigration and Russian aggression have left people questioning whether the old social democratic values – the openness and trust that were once offered easily in any interaction – are up to dealing with a harsher global order and society. It has even left some asking the question, what does it mean to be Swedish?

The event was run under the Chatham House Rule – no audio to be shared by the organisers, people asked to leave phones in pockets and not to post comments online. But Monocle did have special permission to record a host of interviews that will hit air and page in the coming days. Interviews that will shed some light on what was unleashed (in a good way). In the meantime, I can also offer you some observations from the summit.

1. Language. Swedes may be questioning the robustness and quality of their education system but when it comes to language learning, this country is remarkable. The entire day was conducted in English – impeccable, nuanced English. Even at the dinner table, where I was the only non-Swede, people just carried on speaking in English, even to each other. Coming from a country where it makes newspaper headlines if a politician can mutter a few sentences in French or German, it was fascinating to think about how Sweden could achieve such a feat of fluency.

2. Context. The summit unfolded at the Artipelag museum in the Stockholm Archipelago, about an hour’s boat ride away from the city centre. We alighted at the jetty after our coffee and pastry-fuelled ferry ride, walked up a wooden pathway and through a pine forest to the venue. You could see people relaxing on the terrace, taking time to feel the sun on their faces. The setting was seductive and secluded enough for them to let their guards down. Would the day have gone so well if the organisers had selected a more convenient conference centre in the city? Unlikely. Off-sites work.

3. Community. In a country of about 10.5 million people and a city of a million inhabitants, the world of business is both big and small. Many of the business leaders in attendance are running global enterprises but the country is also small enough for them to know each other. Listening to the cacophony of conversation at lunch, you could easily imagine that this was a school reunion, such was the level of camaraderie. And cool: I wonder how many other nations have chambers of commerce that attract such a young audience – and an equal mix of men and women.

4. Lookalikes. Josh has been a little obsessed of late with the belief that I look like Sweden’s prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, who was by chance speaking at Unleashed. Josh kept introducing me to people with the addendum, “and don’t you think he looks a lot like your PM?” Unfortunately for him, nobody seemed to know what he was on about. But then the philosopher Morten Albaek ruined it all when he said, “Sorry if I looked startled when you first came to say hello, I thought you were the prime minister.” Damn those Danish big thinkers.

5. Confidence. Often when moments of reflection settle on us, when our usual self-assurance falters, we can lose sight of the bigger picture. And there is perhaps some of this at play in Sweden. While the crime crisis is all too real, as the day unfolded at Artipelag we also heard about a country and a region that’s leading the way on the environment and technology, a place where culture is still esteemed and social democratic values remain mostly intact. Yes, our Nordic friends have things to fix – but don’t we all? Welcome to the club.

“LAX-it” sounds like a remedy that one might take to get certain things moving but this supposedly short-term arrangement hasn’t relieved a bunged-up Los Angeles International Airport (writes Christopher Lord). In fact, LAX-it (apparently pronounced LA Exit) has become a symbol of how much work needs to be done to get ready to host the 2028 Olympics. With about 1,500 flight operations every day, that means a lot of cars coming and going. In 2019, LAX came up with the idea to put all the taxis in an off-site holding zone. Sounds simple but the reality is less so.

It works like this: upon retrieving your luggage and finally stepping free of the airport, you then have to track down a LAX-it bus (you’ll know it by its lurid-green logo and harsh lighting). You cram onboard with other passengers who’ve just endured long hours squashed together on planes and hold on tight as suitcases career around whenever the bus makes a hard turn. You’re then expelled into what can only be described as an Uber detention centre full of metal fences, floodlights and a panicked throng of people waving their phones around in a futile attempt to track down their driver.

As I’m on the road a lot for Monocle, I’ve become well acquainted with LAX-it. Every time I clamber aboard one of those blinding buses I’m struck by the thought that LA, America’s second most-populous city, needs a welcome that’s second-to-none. The LAX-it system, I’m told, will be around until 2026, when a train will be completed to get people out to the holding pen. We shall see. But with the Olympic torch now passed to LA – great city that it is – it can sometimes feel like it’s flying the plane while building it.

The Monocle Concierge is our purveyor of top tips and delectable recommendations for your next trip. If you’re planning to go somewhere nice and would like some advice, clickhere. We will answer one question a week.

Dear Concierge,

I’m off to northern Spain next month with my father, brother and sister-in-law. What should we see, do, eat and drink in Zaragoza and beyond?

Laura Dalton,
UK

Dear Laura,

Zaragoza may be Spain’s fifth-biggest city but it’s often derided as a mere train-stop between Madrid and Barcelona. Pay no heed to the haters, though. With a name that sounds anchored somewhere between Middle Earth and Don Quixote’s La Mancha, the greater region of Aragon is the heartland of “la España profunda”, or “deep Spain”. This means that authenticity isn’t so easily railroaded by mindless trends, even while a younger generation is freshening up the food scene.

Prepare for lots of grazing: tapas and languorous evenings spent sipping, chatting and people-watching are part of the collective character. With so many outposts to choose from, we recommend pulling up a stool at Lokal on the edge of Casco Antiguo (Old Town), where traditional morsels are spiced with its founders’ experience as chefs abroad. Don’t miss out on the beetroot with toasted butter and sheep’s milk yoghurt. Other pit stops include Gorila, which celebrates conservas (top-quality canned seafood) and all things pickled, and Taberna Casa Landa, where you can settle for a longer innings.

Quench your cultural thirst by visiting the architectural legacy of the water-themed Expo 2008. Saddled on the banks of the Ebro river you’ll see Torre del Agua, Enrique de Teresa’s transparent tower that emulates an 80-metre-high raindrop. There’s also Zaha Hadid’s Bridge Pavilion and Europe’s largest freshwater aquarium, which unfolds like a world tour of the globe’s waterways. Multimedia exhibitions inside the Caixa Forum also provide some solace from the hot sun.

If you’re looking for a pick-me-up cup, stop by Acho Coffee but remember to save room for all the vermut (vermouth) – the local aperitivo of choice is normally chased by a string of cañas (small beers). Juxtapose the old with new by visiting Bodegas Almau, a wine bar that’s been in business for more than 150 years, and then hit a coctelería (cocktail bar) such as Moonlight Experimental by Borja Insa and musician Kase O. The former recently won a string of accolades including 2024’s “world class Spain bartender of the year”. With so much delicious food and free-flowing tipples, we’re confident that your family trip will go down a treat.

Switzerland’s ambassadors to Cuba have occupied a revered piece of modernist architecture – by late Austrian-American designer Richard Neutra – for almost 70 years. Built in 1956 in Havana’s leafy Cubanacán neighbourhood, the house was commissioned as a family home by Swiss banker Alfred de Schulthess. After the onset of Cuba’s socialist revolution three years later, it was sold to the Swiss government, which has accommodated its representatives there since 1961. “People love this house,” Switzerland’s current ambassador to Cuba, Stefano Vescovi, tells Monocle. Here, he explains the value of high design in a diplomatic setting and tells us about the restoration of the embassy’s gardens by Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx.

What role does your official residence play in Switzerland’s diplomatic presence in Cuba?
There is a convening power to this house; everybody is welcome. It’s helpful to be able to meet colleagues and people from different countries, who might have different perspectives on the world, in a setting like this. While we do it in different ways, both Switzerland and Cuba have a power to convene diplomatically. There are about 120 foreign bilateral embassies here – more than almost any North American city, second only to Washington [and Brasília in the Americas]. Additionally, very important people have met in this house. As ambassadors and diplomats, it is critical to have conversations that are quieter, in a venue that feels relaxed. It’s important to have a place where you can look somebody in the eye and discuss and listen, and not just engage in diplomacy that is public.

How valuable is the residence as a showcase of Swiss design?

The design is really thought-through. It is very functional and there is wood throughout the house because the De Schulthess family wanted it to feel like their home in Switzerland. In 2000 the Swiss Confederation changed the furnishing concept, in keeping with the broader tradition of classical modernism. Today it is finished with pieces by Mies van der Rohe, Eero Saarinen, Le Corbusier and pieces of art from the Swiss government’s collection, as well as rotating, smaller exhibits of art by Cuban creatives.

What relationship do the house and garden have to each other?

This was the only project that Neutra and Burle Marx worked on together in the Caribbean. To have these big names in one setting is extraordinary. It’s also the only surviving garden that Burle Marx ever made in the Caribbean. The result is that you have this visual contrast between the rectangular house and the first part of the garden, which is thought-out in a rational way – like a Mondrian flower garden, where everything is very angular, complementing the swimming pool area where we host official events. There are 70 varieties of plants from across Cuba here, which bloom and flower at different times of the year. So it feels natural.

Do you think the two designers met their ambition with this project?
The combination they had in mind was a synthesis of two concepts. And it works nicely. There are fruit trees and a vegetable garden where we grow the ingredients that we use for the official receptions that we host. When our Cuban colleagues who come to enjoy the garden are here, I sometimes joke that “around this table, we might not all be Marxists but we are all Burle Marxists”. That seems to go down very well.

Aida Kim and Larz Harry, co-founders of Perth-based Mantle, met in Tokyo while working for Japanese label Comme des Garçons. They still tap their network of Japanese makers to produce daily staples such as slub hats, gabardine pants and durable canvas bags. Mantle’s intricate hand-dyeing process means that its signature waterproof fabrics have been designed to get better with wear.
man-tle.com

For more sharp reporting, pick up a copy of Monocle’s latest issue or subscribe today. Have a great Saturday.