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
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.
Comedy and urbanism
Laughter is often the best way to deal with complex issues so it’s no wonder that it can make city living more agreeable. This week we explore how humour can be found in the built environment.
Tall Stories 185: Ghosts
Andrew Tuck contemplates the urban apparitions that bring a sense of belonging to the cities in which we live.
Kindness
Can a city be kind? And how do citizens, activists and civic organisations show they care about building friendly places?
Tall Stories 184: Bank of Georgia, Tbilisi
We visit the Bank of Georgia’s Tbilisi HQ: a unique building that takes its design cues from the ‘Space City’ concept, aiming to cover less ground and give the surrounding area back to nature.
CoMotion LA 2019
Although it might seem ironic to hold a mobility conference in Los Angeles – infamous for its traffic woes – civic leaders, transit authorities and private mobility companies were in the city last week for the third edition of CoMotion LA. Monocle’s Carlota Rebelo reports.
Tall Stories 183: The Flower Nagai Line, Yamagata
We take a trip on the Flower Nagai Line, a quirky train line running through Japan’s Yamagata prefecture, that makes for a particularly unique commute.
The fall of the Berlin Wall, part 2
In the second part of our series, we look beyond Germany to ask a fundamental question: why do we divide people? From a 3,200km land border in North America to Europe’s last divided capital, we explore what lessons – if any – we’ve learnt from Berlin.
Tall Stories 182: New York’s streets
We take a look at the streets of New York through the eyes of one man. Originally from Virginia, Matt Green has made it his mission to walk every single street in the Big Apple’s five boroughs – a process that has taken him seven years and counting.
