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
Small Cities
They’re not for everyone but the best small cities can have life-enhancing advantages. Living in them isn’t only about space, comfort and affordability – but a more community-minded feel too.
Tall Stories 189: Happy Foot Sad Foot
This week Monocle’s Carlota Rebelo takes us to the neighbourhood of Silver Lake in Los Angeles to share the story of an unassuming city icon: a rotating sign outside a foot clinic.
Transit maps
How does the design of a transit map help to define a city? Our host Andrew Tuck is joined by three experts and enthusiasts in the field to discuss provenance and progression in the way we chart our transport lines – from London’s Tube to New York’s subway.
Tall Stories 188: HoHo Wien, Vienna
We visit HoHo Wien – one of the world’s tallest wooden skyscrapers. Towering 84 metres above northeast Vienna, this new wooden structure is being hailed as a “lighthouse project” of sustainable living.
Best of Tall Stories 2019
We take a whirlwind trip around the world before returning home to London in our look back at the best of our Tall Stories series in 2019.
Best of 2019
Monocle’s Andrew Tuck runs through some of the highlights of 2019 on The Urbanist, including the thoughts of Los Angeles’ chief sustainability officer, a tour of the city of Cayenne and a discussion with architect Alfredo Brillembourg.
Smart ideas
Technology plays a huge role in our relationship with cities: from simple things such as being able to pay for your subway ride with your phone to more serious efforts such as using drones to help keep protests peaceful.
Tall Stories 187: Santa Claus Village, Rovaniemi
This week we head to Finnish Lapland, regarded as the home of Santa Claus, to see what life is like in a town where it’s Christmas all year round.
Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz
We meet Puerto Rican politician Carmen Yulín Cruz, the mayor of San Juan and an outspoken critic of President Trump’s handling of the aftermath of hurricanes Maria and Irma.
Tall Stories 186: The Doorbell
Monocle’s Georgina Godwin takes us from Harare to London to explore the significance of the humble doorbell – and how its chimes can become soundtracks to the various episodes of our lives.
