17 June 2021
Episode 505
30 minutes
Photo: Sitopia Farm
Urban ideas and inventions to improve the places we call home. We hear about Sitopia Farm in London, learn about wellbeing with ‘Know Your Health’ and look at accessibility innovation with Kone and Leo-Pekka Tähti.
17 June 2021
Share episode
DownloadChapter 1
11 minutes
15
15
/
We speak with Chloë Dunnett, the founder and chief grower of Sitopia Farm, and Carolyn Steel, Sitopia Farm advisory board member, about their plans for an urban farm in London. From the Greek ‘sitos’, meaning food, and ‘topos’, meaning place, with a play on the word ‘utopia’, Sitopia wants to change our relationship with food.
11 minutes
Share chapter 1

Chapter 2
8 minutes
Photo: jo.sau/FLICKR
15
15
/
Online guide ‘Know Your Health’, created by PLP Labs with partners Centric Lab and Comuzi, wants to help urban dwellers to identify how their environment is affecting their health – and what needs to change.
8 minutes
Share chapter 2

Chapter 3
9 minutes
Photo: Getty Images
15
15
/
Engineering firm Kone wants to deliver equality through technology. As part of its DX experiments project, it is developing ways to connect elevators directly to wheelchair users. We speak with Kone’s chief technology officer, Maciej Kranz, and with the ‘world’s fastest man in a wheelchair’ and Paralympic gold medalist Leo-Pekka Tähti.
9 minutes
Share chapter 3

Want 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
Tall Stories 449: Circo Voador, Rio de Janeiro
Tomas Pinheiro tells us how concert venue Circo Voador became so intertwined with Brazilian music that it was named an intangible cultural heritage site.
The Round megadevelopment in London and air pollution in Bangkok
We explore The Round, a new almost 93,000 sq m landmark development in London, to hear how developers are putting community at its core. Plus: we’re in Bangkok to discover how the city is tackling its suffocating air pol…
Tall Stories 448: Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas
Camille Rodríguez Montilla takes us to Universidad Central de Venezuela to see why it means so much to its students, alumni and the city as a whole.
Revisiting, reviewing and restoring the city
We look back at snapshots of our cities as we speak to the man behind Milan’s Bosco Verticale a decade on from construction, revisit a collection of essays 14 years after they were written while strolling the streets of…
Tall Stories 447: Kennedy Park, Lima
Elna Schutz takes us to a park in Lima best known for its large number of well-cared-for resident cats.
Digital democracy and the new Riyadh Metro
We explore how going digital can contribute to a thriving city democracy and improve other things such as climate resilience and urban loneliness. The CEO of digital community-engagement platform Go Vocal describes its…
Tall Stories 446: Villa Rezek, Vienna
Alexei Korolyov tells us about the refurbishment of one of Vienna’s most important modernist buildings.
Developing London
We take a look at three developments in the UK capital that will be worth a visit in the months to come. From a revitalised piece of industrial history to a colourful waterside park in a grey business district and the big…
Tall Stories 445: Maha Kumbh Mela, Prayagraj
Geetanjali Krishna takes us to a temporary city on the banks of the Ganges river to investigate a large example of temporary urbanism brought about by a Hindu pilgrimage.
Cultural city planning
We explore how keeping culture in mind when planning our cities can have effects beyond just arts-related improvements. The people behind ‘The Routledge Handbook of Urban Cultural Planning’ tell us more. Plus: we visit a…
Tall Stories 444: Sacré-Cœur, Paris
Carla Hyenne describes the history of Paris’s Sacré-Cœur basilica, which holds a history that many of those who visit the monument today might not be familiar with.
Los Angeles wildfires and the future of the city
We discuss the environmental causes, political response and mobility fallout surrounding the Los Angeles wildfires. We examine some of the thousands of structures lost to this catastrophic blaze that tore through many of…
Tall Stories 443: Helsinki’s canopy kiosks
Petri Burtsoff visits his home city to see how it has revived its “canopy kiosks”, which have been a distinctive feature of the Finnish capital for a century.
The World Economic Forum: cities of tomorrow
From creating more resilient cities to how architecture can lift a community, cities hold the key to meaningful change in the world. Monocle’s Carlota Rebelo reports from The World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos…
Tall Stories 442: 24 Sussex Drive, Ottawa
Tomos Lewis ponders a potential spring clean of Canada’s official prime ministerial residence.