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 55: garden gate
As London drifts into suburbia, the capital’s architecture is shifting. Just look at the humble garden gate. Andrew Tuck tells us how a simple click can trigger memories of days gone by.
‘The New Urban Crisis’
From gentrification to unaffordability, how do you fix a city in crisis? We speak to Richard Florida about his book ‘The New Urban Crisis’. We’re also in Paris to look at the mayor’s plans for an abandoned railway.
Tall Stories 54: a home called Soho
Monocle 24’s Fernando Augusto Pacheco strolls around London’s Soho and visits his favourite shops, restaurants and streets in the neighbourhood he calls home.
Urban violence
Are certain cities synonymous with certain crimes? We speak with urban activists from three different regions about dealing with violence and ask if design can change the way the public perceives the police.
Tall Stories 53: Cairo Tower
We head to Egypt to hear the story of the Cairo Tower, the tallest structure in North Africa. Designed by Egyptian architect Naoum Shebib, it is one of the city’s most well-known modern monuments.
‘Frontier City’ and missing links
We speak to Shawn Micallef about his new book ‘Frontier City: Toronto on the Verge of Greatness’, hear about Melbourne’s missing rail link and ask if Paris will be able to connect the city to its suburbs.
Tall Stories 52: strolling around Bologna
We take an evening stroll around Bologna and enjoy some of the city’s beautiful outdoor public spaces, from the central square, the Piazza Maggiore, to walkways sheltered by medieval porticoes.
The built environment and Toronto’s missing middle
This week we talk to Sarah Williams Goldhagen on the way our built environment shapes us, hear about Toronto’s missing middle and New York’s latest addition: a floating food forest.
Tall Stories 51: The Old England department store
We wax lyrical about one of Brussels most spectacular art-nouveau structures: the Old England department store, which is now home to the Musical Instruments Museum.
Something old, something new
We discuss China’s plans to build a brand-new city three times the size of New York, hear how Serbia’s capital is preparing for a cycling revolution and examine the project trying to “beautify” Cairo’s downtown.
