Monocle on Design
Your essential guide to design, covering furniture, craft, and architecture. Discover fresh stories, rising talents, and the latest from top studios.
Latest Episodes
Big Insights: Woods Bagot
To kick off our Big Insights series, we speak to the CEO of architecture firm Woods Bagot about his priorities, hopes and preoccupations. Plus: we look at Berlin’s playgrounds and find out how design can provide dignity in old age.
Extra: Havana’s Focsa building
We head to the top of the Focsa building in Havana, which arguably boasts one of the Cuban capital’s best views. Over the years it’s hosted wealthy landowners, Russian spies, foreign dignitaries and academics. We lift the veil on its mysterious past.
Redesigning the hotel
Can technology lead to more humane hospitality? We visit Toronto’s The Annex Hotel to find out why they think it can. Plus: The Woolmark Company’s latest collaboration with Prada, and designer Philippe Malouin on the future of office furniture.
Extra: Can manifestos change the world?
From Le Corbusier’s ‘5 Points of Architecture’ to Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi’s ‘Learning from Las Vegas’ and the more recent ‘Architecture Must Burn’ by Aaron Betsky, Katie Treggiden asks what it takes to create a lasting manifesto.
Manifestos: architecture of the future
Can a manifesto change the world? In truth there are probably quicker ways but that didn’t stop the London Festival of Architecture and the Design Museum commissioning 10 young London-based practices to compose one each. We hear them out.
Extra: Design on the Rhine
As the mercury rises, we shine a spotlight on the growing urban-river movement and head to Swim City, a new exhibition at Basel’s Swiss Architecture Museum, to see how the residents of Basel unwind by the river.
What’s next for Notre Dame?
Tears fell as the spire of Paris’s most famous cathedral crumbled – but should Notre Dame be rebuilt as it was? Josh Fehnert asks professor Alan Dunlop whether it’s best to reuse or redo. Plus: our verdict on the TWA hotel in New York and a word with Maruni art…
Extra: In with the old
From the redevelopment of King’s Cross to breathing new life into old industrial buildings in Hackney Wick, London is a city that’s hitting its stride when it comes to reviving its old buildings. Here’s what Monocle’s Design editor Nolan Giles had to say about the matter.
Restoring Cuba
Havana celebrates its 500th birthday this year and some of its buildings are beginning to show their age. Restoration and reuse are proving challenging – but also rewarding, as Lucinda Elliott reports. Plus a word with the CEO of Rapt Studio and a Victorian renovation project in London.
Extra: Pick a pocket
A new book released this week called ‘The Pocket: A Hidden History of Women’s Lives 1660 – 1900’, traces the history of pockets and what they reveal about women’s role in society.
