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 fall of the Berlin Wall, part 1
Thirty years on from the fall of the Berlin Wall, we ask what life was like for citizens in a divided Berlin and discuss some of the lessons we can learn from the German capital to help repair the divisions faced by cities today.
Tall Stories 181: Eleftheria Square, Nicosia
We visit Eleftheria Square in Cyprus’s capital, where a redevelopment designed by Zaha Hadid is still in construction 14 years after work started. Nicosia-based architect Charis Christodoulou updates our Athens correspondent, Daphne Karnezis, on the latest.
CityLab 2019
This week we’re in Washington to join civic leaders, mayors and activists at the global summit on cities. We reveal how Atlanta dealt with a massive cyberattack, discuss the difference between urban sound and noise, talk smart mobility in Detroit and hear about the importance of reclaiming our streets.
Tall Stories 180: Stari Most, Mostar
We cast our eyes toward this stunning 16th-century bridge in Mostar, a tiny city in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The bridge was tragically destroyed during bitter fighting in the early 1990s but it’s since been restored to its former glory with the help of Unesco – and makes Mostar a must-visit spot for…
Alfredo Brillembourg
How do you make better homes in informal settlements? Should Caracas embrace the ingenuity of squatter communities? How do you build a sports centre on a shack-covered mountain? And what happens if you don’t do any of the above? Andrew Tuck sits down with Venezuelan architect Alfredo Brillembourg to talk…
Tall Stories 179: Hawksmoor’s churches, London
We take a tour of six distinctive East London churches designed by 18th-century English architect Nicholas Hawksmoor, tracing their history from the first brick to their influence on US postmodernism and UK brutalism.
Making space
How do you design and develop spaces for specific groups and activities? And how do these spaces affect the urban fabric of our cities? The use of public areas guides the way we connect with one another, so it’s important to get it right.
Tall Stories 178: Metelkova, Ljubljana
We visit a collection of buildings in the Slovenian capital with an intriguing history and an equally compelling present. Metelkova, once a military stronghold, now exists as a countercultural epicentre and, although it’s officially a squat, is actively supported by the mayor and city council.
New-towns movement
Purpose planned and purpose built, the new-towns movement sought to let some air out of congested industrialised centres after the Second World War. But how have these towns fared and could a fresh wave of them be the cure to some of the 21st century’s urban ailments?
Tall Stories 177: Khlongs, Bangkok
We take to the water in Bangkok to explore the khlongs, a vast network of canals that crisscross the Southeast Asian city. Home to bustling commuters, tottering tourists and floating markets, these still-thriving waterways are the city’s ancient lifeblood.
