The Urbanist
Monocle’s guide to better cities. Explore urban innovation, cutting-edge infrastructure, and compact living with insights from planners, architects, and city leaders.
Latest Episodes
Let’s hit the mall
From arcades to American-style malls, shopping centres are where you can find everything under one roof. But these – usually gigantic – buildings are not always welcome. This week we head to Beirut and discover an old souk turned mall and revisit the history of Europe’s first covered shopping centre.…
The naked city
Nudity is a significant part of any city, from offbeat laws and regulations to urban naked zones and topless reading clubs. We uncover it all and discover how it impacts on residents. Plus: meet our Urban Hero in media.
The world of money
From the trading floor to the local shop, money can define how we interact with a city and also with one another. We look at how to make financial districts more liveable, discover the heritage of old banks in Budapest, explore one of the remaining open outcry markets and pay…
How nostalgia saved Lisbon
A lot of cities use nostalgic references to rejuvenate city centres but some do it better than others. In this special documentary we find out how looking backwards has been key to the Portuguese capital taking a big leap forward.
The museums that make us
Museums aren’t just for tourists; they are important institutions for cities, too. For residents, they can be anything from a path-finding landmark or a public space to an important way of addressing past conflicts or tackling the challenges of current politics. In this episode, we take a look at some…
City sleepers
It’s a necessity of life but is a city sleep a different kind of sleep? In this episode we look at how a city should deal with sleep in public spaces and the ways in which the urban environment has shaped sleep patterns in Europe. Plus, what are the best…
Rethinking the suburb
Are the boundaries between urban, suburban and rural blurring? From exploring new ways to expand our cities to dealing with a shifting balance of power, we look at the power of today’s suburb.
All the way up
What surprising things do we find high-up in cities and what can you tell by looking down on them from the sky? In this episode we visit Vienna’s only tower, head to Rio de Janeiro’s high-altitude neighbourhoods and discover why Cairo wants to add skyscrapers to its skyline.
Urban lighting
When we build towers, monuments or parks, we plan them for the daytime. And in most cities, not much thought is given to how we illuminate or even enhance them. In this episode we take a look at our cities at night and the bright future of outdoor urban lighting,…
Feathered friends
With an influential audience of city mayors, urban planners and architects, this is Monocle’s guide to making better cities, be it new technology, state-of-the-art subways or compact apartments.
