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
What is to be done with the public realm?
We look at the space between our buildings: whose responsibility is it to lay out the welcome mat and make them enjoyable, inviting and popular? Find out why residents and businesses are doing their bit for the greater good.
After the dust settles
Cities are places built to bring people together but every so often conflict and unrest in urban centres means that communal trust is broken. This episode of *The Urbanist* looks at how cities heal after conflict and the dust clears.
The ticking clock
Timekeeping has a big impact on urban life, from iconic clocks and watchmakers to city-wide alarms and historic church bells. We find out about life as a bell-ringer and discover which timezone gives a city 15 minutes of fame every year.
The floating city
How do you best use space on water? From homes and churches to restaurants and markets, we find out how cities are taking to the water and how to do it right.
Big ideas, small packages
Urban innovation often starts as a minuscule experiment – and then it’s turned up. Big ideas about cities don’t always mean super-structures, mega-projects and mass appeal. When it comes to services, amenities and leisure, sometimes it’s the smaller, hyper-local examples that have the most impact.
On the map
They expose the hidden corners of our cities usually lost in the mix but maps are not just for tourists. On this week’s episode of *The Urbanist* we get lost in the art of map making and visit the people and places showing city-lovers the way.
1960s Utopias
They are the buildings that were meant to be Utopian visions of tomorrow but what does that mean today? In this episode of ‘The Urbanist’ we look at once future-perfect designs to learn which idealists guessed right.
How’d that get built?
How’d that get built? City-building at its best is innovative, democratic and aesthetically on point but that’s sadly not always the case. This week’s episode of *The Urbanist* looks at cathedrals of corruption, building blunders and just plain ugly additions to our cityscapes – how do these things get built?
Renewal
City renewal is sometimes a luxury but other times an urgent necessity. In this powerful episode of ‘The Urbanist’ we cover both perspectives looking at changes to the skyline of Istanbul and how Banda Aceh rebuilt after the devastating tsunami of 2004.
Digital currencies
We find out how digital currencies can change the way transactions are made in cities, speak to the man with a plan to renovate Vienna, have a preview of Milan’s upcoming World’s Fair and feature a special interview from the Atlantic Dialogues.
