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 163: Moscow street art
Wander into a Moscow courtyard and you’ll often come across characters made of rusty metal tubes, bits of wood or, perhaps, an old washing machine. With its striking simplicity, this grassroots street art is a uniquely Russian phenomenon – but it might be on the brink of vanishing forever.
Spotlight: Madrid
As we gear up to host our fifth annual Quality of Life Conference in Madrid, we look at the Spanish capital’s urban plans, promises and problems. Our man in the city, Liam Aldous, brings us this week’s special episode.
Tall Stories 162: Toronto Raptors and the city
The ascent of Toronto’s basketball heroes – the Raptors are this year’s NBA champions – has revealed much about the city. In many ways, the team reflects one of the world’s most diverse urban centres.
Checking in
We hear about a clever digital tool changing our urban environments, look at Toronto’s plans to loosen the reins on high-rises and visit a new museum in Sarajevo.
Tall Stories 161: Torre Littoria
We’re in Turin to ponder a towering relic of Italy’s fascist past. Referred to as Mussolini’s finger, this skyscraper has stayed standing despite the wishes of residents.
Cities through the artist’s eye
We stroll through the halls of The Urbanist art gallery to look at how the artist’s perspective can help us paint a new picture of the cities we live in.
Tall Stories 160: Glasgow City Chambers
Monocle 24’s Daniel Bach tells us about the Glasgow City Chambers, which hide one of the city’s greatest architectural features in plain sight.
Urban rulebook
What does it take to be a good citizen? Authorities can set the tone but in the end it’s residents who define the places they live. We look at what’s required to make our cities thrive – and yes, it means following a couple of rules here and there.
Tall Stories 159: Uno Prii
Monocle 24’s Will Kitchens looks at two quietly iconic residential tower blocks from Toronto’s Annex neighbourhood.
Private and public development, part two
We continue our conversation with architect Monica von Schmalensee, developer Jared Della Vale and urban-planner Alfredo Caraballo on the role that private developers play in cities. Plus: we take a closer look at the new World Trade Center.
