For the past eight years, Assaad Taha’s company, Hot Spot, has been making films for the Al-Jazeera TV network. His mission? To uncover and objectively report injustices through Arab eyes, while staying firmly opposed “to…
It builds one new coal power plant every week, and is the largest emitter of carbon emissions in the world. But as world leaders gather for Copenhagen’s climate change conference, China is also the nation that could save…
This month we start a new series looking at the lives and empires of media barons. First is Michael Ringier who, in 1991, became the fifth generation of his Swiss family to head their eponymous empire. Since then Ringier…
What are the benefits, if any, of having an unelected family reigning over a nation’s people? And is this archaic institution on its way out? Monocle’s panel debates whether monarchies, republics or a happy mixture of the…
On the island of O’ahu in Hawaii, members of a local independence movement have succeeded in winning back land claimed by the US in 1893. Now many are calling for nothing less than Hawaii’s complete secession from US rule…
Although 2020 proved that some developments just cannot be foreseen, certain voices are better placed than most to predict the likely direction of the year ahead. We asked 10 experts in international and geopolitical aff…
Houses of worship tend to have a distinct look and feel – but are these tropes out of date? We visit the buildings rewriting the rules for holy architecture.
Being a risk-taker yet remaining part of the mainstream is a tricky thing to pull off. Three proponents of the art, Elizabeth Diller, David Chipperfield and Ellen van Loon, explain how they balance architectural innovation…
Ed Stocker reporting from Lima: Centuries of immigration have made Peru’s coastal capital the culinary envy of Latin America. Now designers hope to do the same for the city’s architecture, from restoring colonial landmarks…
In Sweden’s far north a revolution is under way that could transform how Europe lights its cities and powers its industries. We take a trip to Norrbotten, where the future is looking green.
Bosses are wising up to the benefits of creating a more humane workplace. Not only does this give staff a sense of pride and belonging but it also expresses a company’s ethos to clients. Welcome to the anti-office.
Cities evolve constantly, sometimes seemingly without anyone planning or guiding the process. But new ideas about how they work and can be improved abound, for those interested in taking them on.
Our round-up of the latest looks for spring takes in unisex cashmere from Amsterdam, ethical cotton from Nigeria, Japanese specs in the spotlight and the resurgence of a thoroughly modern Marimekko.