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
Site lines
Site lines: how does art, theatre or business respond to the city that it is based in? This episode is a look at what we are calling the site-specific city.
The new urbanists
The new urbanists: who are they? From app entrepreneurs with eyes fixed on solutions-for-cities prize money to film festivals and art shows that bring the conversations about metropolis-making into the mainstream.
Independent cities
Independent cities: we discuss whether London could ever become a separate city state, take a look at which areas work best for independent businesses and visit a café in Vancouver for a digital detox experience. Plus, we find out how Istanbul’s urban landscape is evolving.
The office workspace
The office: being in an environment you love shouldn’t mean having to count down the hours until your commute home. We look at what makes the perfect space for work and what that has to do with the city around it.
The world of logistics
Fast packages: we cover the world of city logistics and lightning-quick services ranging from property maintenance to the use of UAVs, tricycles to miniature railways.
Dogs in the city
Dogs: we spend an hour with man’s best friend and look at the city from a dog’s eye-view. Why are city-slickers gaga over pricey pooch pampering?
What makes a home?
Homes: a look at the most important four walls. We find out what a housing association has been doing for Londoners for over 150 years, take a tour of a gay housing complex in Berlin, discover what it’s like to live in an apartment in central Tokyo and hop on…
City streets
City streets: we take a look at cities from the ground up, learning how much it costs to set up new a street, why one developer is eager to give new life to one of Lisbon’s oldest neighbourhoods, discover a hidden road in the heart of Manhattan and get a…
Suburban revival
Suburbs: how to bring them back to life, what a ‘sprawl index’ says about a city and what happens when neglected ’burbs fight back. Join us as we head to Istanbul, Washington DC, New York and London.
Building resilient cities
Resilient cities: how do you build a city that lasts? Seeking out stories of strong leadership, the right infrastructure (call in the landscape architect!), to communities whose bonds endure catastrophe, we visit San Francisco, Da Nang, Hong Kong and Calgary.
