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
Reimagining architecture
We explore the work of Bodys Isek Kingelez, a late Congolese artist who reimagined his home city, and offer our take on a new architecture award keen to vaunt the work of lesser-known practices…
Workplace design
We forego the gimmicks and reveal the hazards of hot-desking as we imagine a more meaningful manner in which to improve office design. Josh Fehnert is joined by academic and writer Jeremy Myerson, who…
Fashion forward
We sit down with the Tokyo-based company designing suits for blue-collar workers and visit an exhibition at London’s V&A exploring how fashion and sustainability can go hand in hand. Plus: what do we really…
Are architects afraid of colour?
We explore the use of colour (or the lack thereof) by architects in the West and ask what can be done about it. We also mull over automated ships and visit German bathroom firm…
Restoration and reuse
We meet the architect giving a new lease of life to a brutalist complex in London and find out how a brewery in Athens became the National Museum of Contemporary Art. Plus: Japanese architect…
Meeting BV Doshi
The 2018 Pritzker laureate shares some wisdom and tells us why he’s never been tempted to build outside of his native India. Plus: who are the Pritzkers and why is their approval so prized?
Britain’s postmodern buildings
We ask why a spate of the UK’s bright and bewildering but controversial postmodern buildings have just obtained listed status. Plus: dispatches from the Venice Biennale – what can the Holy Land teach us…
Freespace: Venice Architecture Biennale 2018
Venice, a city of canals, church bells, bobbing boats and over-fed pigeons is a-chatter with talk about the just-opened Venice Architecture Biennale. Josh Fehnert sits down with the directors of this year’s show. He…
Why go to architecture school?
Does architectural education need an overhaul? We put the question to the heads of two leading architecture schools: London’s Architectural Association and the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Plus: Riba’s play…
Jim Olson: framing nature
We meet architect Jim Olson to ask how buildings can bring us closer to nature. Plus: we talk making it in the city at London Craft Week and proffer a little advice for younger…
