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
Drinking in cities
Drinking in cities: How booze fuels our urban centres. We look at the history of the British pub (and why Charles de Gaulle got to name one in London), Milan’s aperitivo culture and how to buy a good drop in Stockholm. Plus, how to find out if you live in…
The business of public toilets
What’s new in the business of doing your business in public? We find out how public toilets can make you money, how to design them (we get lessons from Japan) and what do with ones that have had their final flushes.
The role of districts
What does a ‘district’ do? We explore their place in the city, from the branding of neighbourhoods by their past or present industry to give them a story to tacking on ‘village’ or ‘quarter’ to give them soul.
Free spaces
Freedom: What are the spaces in a city where we feel free to express ourselves and do as we please – and does freedom make a city a better place to live? And what about services: should parks have free wi-fi and is public art preferable to a gallery? We…
The impact of hipsters
The Hipster: they are part of a very visible and oft-derided subculture that has pushed loft-style living into big business and filled the streets with couture coffee. But what is the long-term impact of these of-the-moment taste makers when it comes to our cities?
The lobbyists
The lobbyists: not the bad or ugly, but the good. How are those lobbying City Hall, whether through closed-door meetings or open public festivals, getting their messages heard – and changing the metropolis for the better?
The “third-place” concept
“Third place”: the not-so-new concept of a space between work and home that’s dominating the business plans of everyone from hoteliers to park directors. We visit London, Hong Kong, Washington DC and Sydney – and meet the man who coined the term.
The guided city
The guided city: tourist or resident, what role do guides have in opening up a city? Off the beaten path or firmly on it, how do we challenge our understanding of cities through new ways of seeing, touching, smelling or tasting them?
The perfect city block
The perfect city block: from the types of tree and best places to sit, to the scale of an apartment block and the width of the pavement – what is it that makes the perfect city block? And, who lives there?
City behaviour
Oh, behave: How do cities affect how we interact? We head to Rio de Janeiro, New York, Lisbon and London to listen, watch and walk our way through urban behaviour.
