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
New year, new city?
It’s a brand new year and with it comes change and resolutions – not just for us but for our cities too. We meet Rio de Janeiro’s new mayor, find out why it took nearly 100 years for a new subway extension to be added in New York and see…
Tall Stories 38: Casa dos Bicos
This week we visit one of the most peculiar structures in Lisbon: a building covered with 1,125 diamond-shapes stones.
Should a city host a design week?
With more than 100 design weeks around the world, design worshippers are hard-pressed to visit them all. Yet new cities are always being added. So why are so many municipalities trying to link their names with ‘Design’ and what can being a host bring to a city?
Tall Stories 37: Zürich’s transport triumph
Switzerland’s largest city has some of the best transport infrastructure in the world. But what makes it so good and can other cities replicate it? Henry Rees-Sheridan investigates.
The Urbanist: best of 2016
We bring you some of the best moments on ‘The Urbanist’ this year, including reports from Rio de Janeiro, Moscow and Seattle – and even a chat from the top of a tree.
Tall Stories: best of 2016
We bring you highlights from 2016’s ‘Tall Stories’, including a tale of the river Thames, the Waikiki Natatorium War Memorial and Singapore’s Cavenagh Bridge.
Jane Jacobs
In a special episode of ‘The Urbanist’, we look at the life and legacy of Jane Jacobs, one of the most influential urban thinkers and city activists of our time.
Tall Stories 36: RKO Pictures
The RKO Pictures logo once conjured up feelings of anticipation among cinemagoers around the world but today its history is largely relegated to the pages of history books. However, as Monocle’s Ben Rylan learns there are still a few clues left for eager Los Angeles sidewalk explorers to discover as…
Come together
This week we report from the C40 conference where mayors gathered to discuss how to implement positive change in the world. Hop on a boat in Lisbon to talk about how collective action and architecture come together and we unpack the emerging trend of building over transit lines.
Tall Stories 35: Trafalgar Square’s Christmas tree
As nations around the globe get into the festive season, our Business editor Matt Alagiah takes a look at one of the UK’s most established and deeply symbolic Christmas traditions: the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree.
