Monocle on Design
Your essential guide to design, covering fashion, furniture, craft, and architecture. Discover fresh stories, rising talents, and the latest from top studios.
Latest Episodes
Remembering Jørn Utzon
On the centenary of celebrated (and controversial) Danish architect Jørn Utzon’s birth, we assess his best-known work: the Sydney Opera House. Plus: Pentagram’s latest partner Yuri Suzuki on sound and we find out how…
Home futures
How will fewer resources, a lack of space and new technologies impact the way we build our homes? We seek answers at a new exhibition and talk to a designer about creating tiny homes.…
Hem line
A sit-down with Petrus Palmér, CEO and founder of Stockholm furniture firm Hem. Plus: we decamp to Dubai to see if the desert is fertile ground for a new crop of design thinkers and…
Elemental: the work of Alejandro Aravena
We meet Pritzker prize-winning architect Alejandro Aravena to talk politics, climate change and architecture’s role in turbulent times. Plus: what is director Wes Anderson up to in Vienna?
Meeting Olafur Eliasson
What can designers learn from artists – and where does one discipline end and the other begin? We sit down with Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson to find out. Plus: London-based watchmaker Uniform Wares on…
The Barbican estate: living with a legend
Fifty years since the first residents moved in, we explore life in London’s much-discussed brutalist housing complex. Plus: a tour of Sweden’s newly reopened National Museum after a five-year transformation.
Architecture for animals
We ask what designers dream up when they put animals at the centre of their thinking, see the silkscreen printers pushing on in Beirut and visit a Stirling prize-winning building to augur the future…
‘Why Materials Matter’
We peek inside the innovative Berlin-based design company that’s developing pollution-eating façades to tackle city smog. Plus: Mexican architect Frida Escobedo on her love of traditional materials and a discussion on the ethics of…
Hostile architecture
We look at the ups and downs of ‘hostile’ or ‘defensive’ architecture, those prickly interventions designed to curb anti-social behaviour, vandalism and lingering. Plus: a new book about weaving and a special dispatch from…
Fixing public space
Public space in cities is increasingly scarce, we seek out an example in Lebanon that’s getting it right. Plus: Monocle’s Fashion editor Jamie Waters on why Celine’s new creative director is causing a stir…
