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
The Internet of Things
We ask how technology and connectedness are changing product design and transforming everything from homes to our cities. Guests include Kohler’s Mark Bickerstaffe, Ron Bakker of PLP Architecture and Sean Affleck of Make Architects.
Extra: Absent architecture
While the architects at Foster + Partners await the green light for their Tulip proposal, we explore some of the buildings that could have been but never were.
Design Miami
This week we focus on the festivities at Design Miami, which wrapped last weekend, and visit the Long Island workshop of lighting firm Allied Maker. Plus: what will the military forces of the future be wearing?
Extra: Printworks
The cavernous halls of the Printworks, an old newspaper printing plant in London district Canada Water, have been turned into a major destination for lovers of electronic music. The team behind the project are keen to get the most out of their building, which also happens to be a historical…
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 to design a fire.
Extra: Brains and Braun
London-based research project Das Programm focuses on the industrial-design legacy of Dieter Rams and Frankfurt-based firm Braun. Here Das Programm’s director Dr Peter Kapos talks about the enduring influence of both.
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. Plus: quantifying the value of design.
Extra: Chip off the old block: Thomas Chippendale
The 18th century is known for the Enlightenment, a few bloody revolutions and the work of Britain’s most eminent and enduring cabinet-maker Thomas Chippendale. His journey to prominence is being documented by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the exhibition ‘Chippendale’s Director: The Designs and Legacy of a Furniture Maker’.
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 look at why Sweden says no to a new Apple store.
Extra: Stan Lee and comic-book art
Comic-book fans are mourning the passing of Stan Lee, who helped to make a niche industry popular and lucrative. We discuss the growing appreciation of graphics and ask whether comic-book illustrators are due more recognition.
