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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
Licence to kiln
Is clay making a comeback? Design journalist Katie Treggiden discusses her new book that profiles 25 makers across six cities. And have you ever wondered why most passports are just one of four colours? We speak to an editor who’s been investigating how countries use design to express their international…
On Design 56: Reviving an icon
Rio de Janeiro’s Hotel Nacional, designed by world renowned Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, reopened its doors earlier this year after being shut for more than 20 years. Monocle’s Sheena Rossiter tells us more about this masterpiece of hospitality architecture.
Reinventing retail
Can Arket reimagine the way we shop? We take a tour of the H&M Group’s latest all-encompassing retail experience and consider how to revive the department-store model. Plus: we ask whether cities have been too quick to embrace the cycle scheme and extol the virtues of the humble carpark.
On Design 55: Ella Hansen – the woman who saved Carl Hansen and Søn
Furniture manufacturer Carl Hansen and Søn is a third-generation family-run Danish business. It was established by Carl Hansen in 1908, taken over by his son Holger Hansen in 1934 and then run by his two grandsons, first Jørgen Gerner and now Knud Erik. What most accounts of the company tend…
Boom or bust: statues in the city
Statues are important civic landmarks so what can instating and removing them say about a city and its relationship to its past? We find out how Budapest is remembering its Soviet history. Plus: we talk to curator and architect Aaron Betsky about his handsome new title and augur the future…
On Design 54: Off the rail: saying ‘Auf Wiedersehen’ to Vienna’s trams
Many of Vienna’s older (and better-designed) trams are being phased out. We track the history of the vehicle that’s long kept the Austrian capital moving.
Design in print
As some of architecture and design’s flagship titles lag, are the smaller independents asking the biggest questions? Journalist Katie Treggiden joins us for a review of the newsstand. Plus we speak to IA Collaborative’s Dan Kraemer about his mission to revive and reprint a long-lost title he thinks every designer…
On Design 53: How did a flip-flop become a Brazilian icon?
As Brazil weathers turbulent economic times, footwear brand Havaianas stands out as a homegrown success story. Monocle’s Fernando Augusto Pacheco takes a closer look at the designers of the world’s most ubiquitous flip-flop.
Rethinking modernism
Modern marvel or bleak box? Modernism is one of the most divisive architectural movements of the 20th century. We talk to Matt Gibberd and Albert Hill, founding directors of The Modern House and authors of a new book that argues why it’s time for us to reassess our definition of…
On Design 52: Who was Austen St Barbe Harrison?
After the British captured Jerusalem in 1917, they decided to preserve everything behind the 16th-century walls of the Old City. But outside, modernity was calling and Austen St Barbe Harrison, the city’s chief architect, would change the city forever.
