17 October 2013
Episode 105
01 hour
Come together: in the drive for density, what is the difference between good and bad? We visit Manila, New York, Madrid and Perth to ask how cities should be boosting city-centre populations.
17 October 2013
Share episode
DownloadWant more radio episodes like these in your inbox?
Sign up to Monocle's email newsletters to stay on top of news and opinion, plus the latest from the magazine, radio, film and shop.
The Urbanist - latest episodes
Work & the city
We continue to unpack our new book, ‘The Monocle Guide to Building Better Cities’. This week we turn our focus to chapter 7, looking at the places where we work.
Tall Stories 124: The Melnikov House
Konstantin Melnikov’s most significant building was the house he built for himself in 1929. It remained in the Melnikov family for decades until, in 2014 after much legal wrangling, it was taken over by the Moscow Museum…
Building Better Cities: Barcelona
We continue to explore the pages of ‘The Monocle Guide to Building Better Cities’. This week we’re off to the Catalonian capital to hear how the city has changed through the years and what lessons it has learned for the…
Tall Stories 123: Rowley, Canada
After being a ghost town for decades, Rowley in central Alberta has been reinvented. With old Western-style buildings still intact, it has become a quirky spot in the middle of the Canadian prairies and an open-air museum…
Building better cities: essays
All this month we’re dedicating the show to chapters from our new book: ‘The Monocle Guide to Building Better Cities’. We start off with a series of essays that look at some of the challenges our urban areas face and how…
Tall Stories 122: Peckham Rye
Peckham Rye has long been a source of inspiration to artists and writers; in this week’s Tall Stories we explore the history and atmosphere of the London park where William Blake once saw angels and to which Muriel Spark…
Rediscovering London
There is something magical about finding an old photo of a familiar place and seeing how much it has changed. It is a powerful reminder of the life that unfolded on the streets long before you arrived.
Tall Stories 121: Toronto: The Bentway
Monocle’s Toronto bureau chief shows us around The Bentway, a newly opened public area for the city under the Gardiner Expressway.
Urban thoughts
We tour a new exhibition shining a light on Jerusalem, meet the architecture duo building libraries to bring the community together and ask: if everyone else was giving up their data, would you do it too?
Tall Stories 120: Hyde Park’s Mastaba
Monocle editor Andrew Tuck takes us on a stroll through London’s Hyde Park to visit a structure floating in the Serpentine: the Mastaba.
Book club
We profile two new books: Alexandra Langue’s ‘The Design of Childhood’ and Kelvin Campbell’s ‘Making Massive Small Change’.
Tall Stories 119: Fritz Wotruba
Far away from the splendours of Vienna’s historic city centre lies a stupendous piece of architecture. It’s all concrete and glass, and it would be a perfect example of brutalist architecture were it not more of a sculpture…
Privacy
Our thoughts on what should be private or off-limits are changing in every aspect of our lives, including the way we inhabit cities.
Tall Stories 118: Domino Park
Monocle’s Ed Stocker takes us to the Williamsburg waterfront in New York, where a new space has just opened to the public.
Shhh, be quiet
What role does the humble public library play in cities today? Join us as we hear about the impromptu libraries popping up in private houses, reminisce about the bookmobile, discover how one library has employed a team of…
