George Town, on the Malaysian island of Penang, was a colonial trading hub but after the Second World War it lost out to Hong Kong and Singapore. Now its faded Art Deco villas and relaxed pace of life are luring a new…
Built as a hunting lodge in the 1930s and seized by the SS during the Second World War, Villa St Martin in Alsace has a colourful history. Now an idyllic family home, its Bauhaus and art deco architectural styles
All cities love the artistic vibe but often destroy it with high rents, so the affordability of artists’ studios is a good judge of cultural quality of life – it’s even a new judging metric for this year’s survey. With that…
Nolan Giles reporting from Semmering: A mountainside fin-de-siècle resort town in Austria is being reawakened from its slumber by new arrivals who come armed with a vision – and a paint brush.
Removed from the bustle of city life, Zamalek has become a mainstay of the wandering wealthy. But the enclave’s architecture, cultural hotspots and green spaces make it a welcome hub for all.
In the first of a new series of journeys, we hit the road and head to the village of Noormarkku, western Finland, in search of superlative Finnish design.
As Japanese accents appear in Oslo and Italian touches take root in Tokyo, a familial Lebanese home has been rebuilt following a devastating fire. Around the world, custodians are connecting heritage stories and traditional…
An architect’s plush and playful early modernist home in the Belgian town of Lier received a gentle polish from its new owners. The result is a house that is once again fit for purpose.
You won’t see many tourists idling around the crumbling mix of ancient and modern that is Morocco’s largest city. You’ll be hard-pushed to find much in the way of infrastructure either. Yet the locals adore the place.
Tunis has a glorious mix of architecture, from Islamic arches to modern skyscrapers. But its modernist post-independence treasures don’t always get the care they need. Now the city’s architects and campaigners are coming…
As Norway finds fresh ways to tell its story through soft power around the world (in sponsoring everything from London club nights to international design shows), there’s one example that’s stood the test of time. The…
This month Monocle visits a new luxury retail behemoth in Milan, a Yemeni coffee outlet in Tokyo and a Copenhagen restaurant serving New Nordic food at affordable prices.