
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

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…
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…
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.
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…