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 public realm
As some countries start to relax restrictions imposed during the coronavirus pandemic, we assess how our view of the public realm has changed – and how it might look in the future.
Tall Stories 204: The balcony
Chiara Rimella laments the absence of a house feature that’s common in her native Italy but sadly missing from many of the UK’s architectural plans.
Big interview: Jan Gehl
Andrew Tuck brings you a special interview with Jan Gehl, perhaps the world’s best-known urban designer. Now 83, he’s waiting this pandemic out while isolating at home, enjoying spring from his garden. Sometimes all you need to steady your outlook is someone with a longer vision than yourself.
Tall Stories 203: Argumento, Rio de Janeiro
Our Latin America correspondent Lucinda Elliott takes us to a bookshop in Ipanema that just celebrated its 40th birthday and remains an important hub for Rio’s book-loving residents.
New normal
As cities rapidly adapt to the new realities of coronavirus, we continue to unpack the impact of those changes on urban living.
Tall Stories 202: Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna
We take a look behind the fanciful façades of Vienna’s Schönbrunn Palace and chat with one of its residents to see what it’s like to live like an emperor.
In praise of our cities
We ask our housebound editors and correspondents across the globe to reflect on what they cherish about the places in which they live and to pen a love letter to their cities.
Tall Stories 201: Plattenbauten, Berlin
We assess the unmissable Plattenbauten, a quick-to-construct building style that took off in Berlin after the Second World War.
All in it together
We continue looking at how coronavirus is affecting cities around the world. Monocle editor Andrew Tuck brings you stories of perseverance and kindness, good neighbours and good companies – all helping us weather the storm.
Tall Stories 200: Density revisited
Monocle’s editor Andrew Tuck ponders whether the arguments for density still apply to our new and rapidly changing world.
