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
Planning ahead
We explore the virtues of second cities as master-plan test-beds, speak to a Ukrainian mayor hoping to build back better after the war and look into how virtual reality can improve the way our buildings sound.
Tall Stories 354: Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, Valencia
Conor Faulkner visits the City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia’s best-known piece of modern architecture, to explain its bumpy creation story.
City lessons from Salone del Mobile
We explore some of the promising plans and inspiring ideas for our cities that we have heard while floating around the exhibition halls of this year’s Salone del Mobile in Milan.
Tall Stories 353: Çamlıca Tower, Istanbul
Hannah Lucinda Smith admires a beautiful piece of telecommunications infrastructure in the hills of Istanbul.
The Urbanist Book Club
We convene another meeting of the Urbanist Book Club to highlight two titles that have caught our eye: ‘Carmageddon’ by Daniel Knowles and ‘Why Public Space Matters’ by Setha Low.
Tall Stories 352: The Georgian Military Highway
Jessica Bridger takes a trip down a historical trade route where the driving conditions are often as extreme and wild as the surrounding landscape.
The future of Milan
Monocle’s Ed Stocker explores his adopted home of Milan to find out what the future holds for the city. From new metro infrastructure to a sweep of new buildings and neighbourhoods – big-name architects, planners and developers have plenty planned for the city.
Tall Stories 351: Can Vivot, Palma
Andrew Tuck peers inside one of Palma’s many shuttered courtyards to reveal a breathtaking property ordinarily concealed from public view.
Sweden’s urban experiments
We’re shining a light on Sweden – a country that dares to take urban experimentation to the next level. We visit an exciting community project in Duved, explore the architectural variety of Linköping and hear why Helsingborg is a cycling mecca.
Tall Stories 350: Mother of Kartli, Tbilisi
Sally Howard visits the “Mother of Georgia” statue to see what this monument to femininity says about the role of women in the post-Soviet state.
