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 173: The Column of Justice, Florence
We’re off to Florence to admire a 16th-century monument in Piazza Santa Trinita. The Column of Justice, an 11-metre-tall granite column with a statue of Justice perched atop, has a particular positioning and peculiar history that tells us some truths about the relationship between art and the city.
Cities in extremes
We cast our eyes towards a few of the world’s most extreme cities, from an isolated Australian outpost to the heights of the Valley of Mexico, to assess how their unique challenges have shaped their urban environments.
Tall Stories 172: Victoria Park, Hong Kong
Victoria Park, a tranquil green space in Hong Kong, has long been a place for recreation. But since June it has taken on a different role: the park’s large open area was ground zero for anti-government protests.
Repurpose
Repurposing and renovation are crucial tools for implementing urban change. This week we look at the Battersea Power Station, hear about a new cultural hub, housed in a former clothes factory in Georgia and turn our gaze to Moscow too.
Tall Stories 171: The Gänsehäufel
We take a final glance through the ‘Summer Weekly’ newspaper and wade into Vienna’s Old Danube. This inactive arm of the river is home to the Gänsehäufel, an island oasis dotted with lawns, beaches and pools that offer respite from the city’s soaring summer temperatures.
Universal basic income
How do you define what’s necessary to meet a person’s basic needs? Some countries have been testing the concept of universal basic income – but how does it impact city living?
Tall Stories 170: Cuba’s Coppelia
We take another flick through the pages of our ‘Summer Weekly’ newspaper, this week visiting the hulking modernist flagship of Cuba’s state owned ice-cream brand Coppelia. It’s been serving scoops for more than half a century and has become a symbol of the nation’s resilient culture.
Heatwave
Following one of the hottest summers on record, we look at the impact that rising temperatures are having on our cities.
Tall Stories 169: La Grande Motte
This week we delve into issue one of Monocle’s summer newspaper, ‘The Summer Weekly’, and head to the once-marshy, mosquito-ridden coastal commune of La Grande Motte in France, which has been transformed since the 1960s into a lush resort town with real beachfront appeal.
Pedestrian zones
To make their centres more liveable, cities across the globe are looking to reduce the dominance of cars by creating pedestrian-only streets, plazas and walkways. They’re at the forefront of many urban-improvement initiatives so we take a look at where they have come from and why people love them or…
