The Monocle Minute

The hum of engines, chatter of crowds and beeps of digital devices in our cities are often equated with success. Yet, in this pursuit of growth, we might be undervaluing one of urban living’s greatest luxuries: quiet. Silence has become a rarity overlooked in discussions of city planning.

Fear not, factoring silence into the building of urban environments is not about sterilising cities; it’s about balance. Studies show that constant noise pollution – whether from traffic, construction or people – can lead to stress, anxiety and even cardiovascular problems. Despite the risks, metropolises grow denser and the quest for calm becomes more elusive. Thankfully, some cities are pioneering ways to weave a sense of serenity into our daily lives.

Helsinki, for example, has taken deliberate steps to integrate quiet spaces into its urban planning. The city champions green spaces such as Central Park and Nuuksio National Park, where noise is kept to a minimum, and places emphasis on encouraging environmentally friendly lifestyles. The University of Helsinki’s Digital Geography Lab has developed a mobile app called Green Paths, which directs the Finnish capital’s residents to walking routes and spaces with the least noise pollution.

Singapore has embraced “green barriers” as a solution, using its extensive network of nature reserves and vertical gardens to buffer noise pollution. The city-state’s commitment to preserving green spaces has, in turn, made it one of the quietest places in Asia, with parks such as the Southern Ridges offering peaceful escapes from urban life.

Copenhagen, meanwhile, is leading its efforts to reduce noise through the creation of carless streets such as the Strøget, one of Europe’s longest pedestrianised roads. By decreasing traffic and promoting walking, residents can experience the city in a more serene way. With this week’s announcement that traffic could be banned on a section of London’s Oxford Street, it appears that the trend is catching on.

Cities that prioritise quiet spaces are not just more liveable but also more thoughtful. True progress is not just about how fast we can move but also about how well we can pause. After all, sometimes the best parts of urban life are the quiet breaks amid the hustle and bustle.

Emmanuil Papavasileiou is Monocle’s newsletters editor. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.

The Medusa 2024 naval exercise, an annual defence collaboration between Greece and Egypt, is set to take place between October 12 to 20 within the waters surrounding Crete, Kasos and Karpathos. This year’s joint drills will also involve naval forces from Saudi Arabia, Cyprus and France, underscoring the growing defence ties between the Mediterranean and Gulf states.

Athens’ recent naval deployments, in particular to the Red Sea to assist against Houthi incursions, have brought it closer to Riyadh. The drills aim to improve bilateral interoperability and include aeronautical and anti-submarine warfare exercises. Following this summer’s latest standoff between Greece and Turkey, the drills also highlight Egypt’s position relative to its allies. During a recent visit to Ankara, Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, was reportedly asked to create an exclusive economic zone between Cairo and Turkey – a request subsequently rejected by al-Sisi.

This week, Christie’s became the first global auction house to operate in Saudi Arabia after establishing a permanent commercial licence. While the date of opening has not yet been disclosed, the new operation in Riyadh will focus on modern and contemporary Middle Eastern art, jewellery and timepieces. Its space will be used to host exhibitions, and private sales, and participate in cultural events within the kingdom.

Heading up the firm’s latest outpost is Nour Kelani, who has been appointed to the newly created role of managing director. It will be the company’s second branch in the Gulf since the establishment of Christie’s Dubai in 2005. Over the past few years, several major museums, galleries, biennales and artistic institutions have opened across the country and the arrival of a global auction house in the Saudi capital cements its emergence as a key player in the international art market.

Serhii Plokhy is the Mykhailo S Hrushevsky professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard University and the author of several acclaimed books on Ukraine, the Soviet Union and the Cold War. His latest is Chernobyl Roulette: A War Story, recalling the weeks in 2022 when invading Russian forces seized control of the infamous nuclear plant in Ukraine, which is currently being decommissioned.

You previously wrote ‘Chernobyl: History Of A Tragedy’ about the 1986 disaster. When did you realise that you were going to have to write a sequel?
On the day that the war started in 2022. I was in the archives of the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] researching a book on the international effects of the 1986 disaster. I left the building because I didn’t think that what I was doing was important any more. By the end of 2022, I realised that there was this untold story about Chernobyl and I was uniquely qualified to write about it.

It’s an extraordinary study in human psychology – the plant’s Ukrainian staff, despite being held at gunpoint, eventually take charge.
An extraordinary story: the kidnapped kidnap the kidnappers. The Russians knew how to take over the plant but they didn’t know how to keep it. Chernobyl has become a unique site in terms of the processes happening under the Number Four reactor – the one that exploded in 1986. The Russians didn’t have this knowledge but the Ukrainians did – and they turned that knowledge into power.

There’s also this extraordinary vignette of how Russia treats its troops. Soldiers ordered to dig trenches in the ‘Red Forest’, one of the most irradiated zones on Earth.
I originally put in the book that it was like they hadn’t watched the HBO miniseries but my editor crossed it out and said, “That’s not how you write.” It really surprised me that so little had changed between 1986 and 2022 in that Soviet mentality – the disregard for your own people.

The book also chronicles the resistance of Slavutych, the town where most of the plant’s employees live. Did that strike you as a microcosm?
Slavutych was the last construction project of the big empire called the Soviet Union and its population is also imperial; multi-ethnic with a lot of people also coming from Russia. The question of those people’s loyalties was not clear at all but when the Russian troops arrived, they took up arms. That was a moment of truth because, though a majority of them still spoke Russian, in the fight between big and dangerous Russia and much smaller and weaker Ukraine, they chose Ukraine. Maybe it sounds cliché but in the end those people chose freedom.

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