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
Shhh, be quiet
What role does the humble public library play in cities today? Join us as we hear about the impromptu libraries popping up in private houses, reminisce about the bookmobile, discover how one library has employed a team of bats and hear about public libraries in North America.
Tall Stories 117: the hypermarket
These white elephants are blamed for destroying communities around the world but Monocle’s Fernando Augusto Pacheco suggests that we look at them differently.
Crime and the city
We focus on our home city, London, because recent statistics back up what many Londoners have been feeling for months: that we are living through a spike in crime. Andrew Tuck is joined by Anna Mansfield, Rory Geoghegan, Livvy Haydock and Richard Sennett to discuss if there is an urban…
Tall Stories 116: The Westway
We turn our attention to the stretch of elevated motorway that was built as part of an abandoned scheme to turn London into a motor city.
Beirut Design Week 2018
Beirut’s Design Week wants to encourage designers and planners to engage more in solving the city’s many urban issues. So can some tactical urbanism improve quality of life in the Lebanese capital?
Tall Stories 115: London’s pedway
This week our editor Andrew Tuck goes cycling in London to bring us an elevated experience.
Time to cool it
We take a step back, look at the life unfolding around us and ask: have our cities become a little too orderly?
Tall Stories 114: Il Quadrilatero
This week we’re in the Adriatic port city of Trieste, where Monocle’s Alexei Korolyov has been to visit a brutalist council home with a troubled history.
Cities on the rise
This week we’re in the Irish port city of Cork for the Academy of Urbanism’s annual congress. The focus of this year’s edition is as much about unlocking the potential of so-called second cities as it is about tackling the challenges posed by the bigger ones.
Tall Stories 113: Ridley Road Market
As the gentrification of London accelerates, is it possible to achieve a symbiotic relationship between locals and newcomers? This week we delve deep into one of Hackney’s oldest markets to find out how much has changed.
