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 deal with sharing
Share deal: a special episode looking at car sharing, office sharing, table sharing and mingling in cities around the world.
Sex in the city
Sex: it’s always on the agenda. From red-light districts becoming design hubs and drag queens going mainstream to how to manage São Paulo’s love motels, we tour the world looking at cities between two sheets.
Cars and cities
Cars: Whether it’s daytime deliveries for your business or late-night taxis home after the last metro has run, there’s a place in our cities for cars. In this episode we talk Moscow traffic jams, visit the town Volkswagen built and find out why Turin wants to go electric.
The boring rich
Rich is boring: we look at Zürich, Vancouver, London, Milan and New York to ask why rich cities or neighbourhoods can seem like the ones with the least going on.
Debunking urban myths
City myths: what happens when what we think of cities turns out to be untrue? From superstitions to bogus branding, we visit London, Jerusalem, Milan, Zürich and Toronto.
Mapping cities
Maps: we hear about the man who made New York a grid, find out why some Swiss prefer a relief and learn about Beirut through one of its first maps.
The controversy over gentrification
Gentrification: we speak to critics and champions, and visit Warsaw, Budapest, San Francisco, Madrid and Tel Aviv to ask about the role of people, architecture and history in the ever-controversial process.
The evolution of concrete
Concrete: invented in the Roman era but seemingly modern, we talk about concrete with architects, urbanists, psychologists and academics. Does it drive us mad? How does it differ in Japan, Italy or Switzerland? And what are the prospects for a renaissance?
Hometown bound
Hometowns: heading back to hometowns can remind us how they work, or don’t, and what the future holds for a collection of buildings that were once very familiar. We check out Bemidji, Winnipeg, LA and San Diego.
Unveiling the views
Views: a commute into Glasgow, we walk the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto and why Warsaw is trying to hide one of its most iconic buildings.
