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 165: The Kiwi bach
The bach plays a leading role in New Zealanders’ summer holidays. Monocle 24’s David Stevens takes us to his family’s bach on Waikanae Beach to assess why this classic Kiwi dream might be starting to fade.
Wellbeing and cities
We discuss wellbeing in our urban environments. Reporting from the inaugural Wellbeing Cities Forum in Montréal, we examine how to live well in a city and dissect the social, economic and cultural aspects of urban life.
Tall Stories 164: Stonewall’s legacy
Stonewall is the most influential event in US gay-rights history; in 2016, Barack Obama made the site of the uprising a national monument. So why are many places that are critical to LGBT history under-documented and overlooked?
Lessons from the Quality of Life Conference
Now that Monocle’s fifth annual Quality of Life conference has wrapped up in Madrid, we look back at some of the wisdom we took home with us and ponder how we can use these lessons to effect change in our own urban environments.
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.
