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
Topography and mobility
Topography versus urbanism: how a young Spanish mayor has reconnected the city, a look at Rio de Janeiro’s cable car system and a preview tour of Seoul’s new sky garden.
Tall Stories 56: national typography
For this week’s edition of Tall Stories, we take you to the Basque Country. But instead of focusing on a building, we look at something that is present in most structures: national typography. Monocle’s Chiara Rimella tells us more.
Pollution
We hear how Helsinki is keeping its coastline clean, ask if a high-rise could help solve Melbourne’s air and water quality problem and report from Macedonia, which has two of the top-three most-polluted cities in Europe.
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.
