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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
Tall Stories 359: The Fiat Tagliero Building, Asmara
Isabella Jewell explores how colonialism shaped the distinctly Italian architecture of the Eritrean capital.
Sadie Morgan and tackling homelessness
Sadie Morgan discusses the shortlist for the forthcoming Davidson Prize, how our cities can help rough sleepers and how good planning can improve every aspect of urban life, from housing to infrastructure. Plus: a look at Los Angeles’s solutions to homelessness.
Tall Stories 358: Villa Mairea, Pori
Petri Burtsoff takes us to one of Alvar Aalto’s most famous buildings: a modernist demonstration of what mass housing was lacking at the time.
Chasing zero
Cities around the world are making commitments to reduce their net carbon emissions to zero. But what are the steps being taken to ensure this goal is achieved, and who is leading the race towards a greener urban future?
Tall Stories 357: Verkehrskanzel, Berlin
Paige Reynolds visits a relic of Berlin’s infrastructure that speaks to our cities’ less automated histories.
Better community policing
Monocle’s Chris Cermak reports from the Professionalizing Law Enforcement-Community Engagement Training Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, to explore how police can better interact with the communities they serve and gain their trust.
Tall Stories 356: Cermak Road, Chicago
Chris Cermak looks into the local Chicago history that is invoked by his relatively rare surname.
The fate of the department store
In this special roundtable discussion, The Urbanist debates what is best for our grand old department stores. Should they be revitalised, repurposed or removed? Henrietta Billings from SAVE Britain’s Heritage and Toby Pentecost of the property developer Candour join us to consider the options.
Tall Stories 355: The Barnes Dance
David Stevens investigates a particularly well-choreographed way to cross the road.
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.
