The Urbanist
Monocle
With an influential audience of city mayors, urban planners and architects, this is Monocle’s guide to making better cities, be it new technology, state-of-the-art subways or compact apartments. Nominee in the Smartest Podcast category of the 2019 British Podcast awards.
Location:
London, United Kingdom
Networks:
Monocle
Description:
With an influential audience of city mayors, urban planners and architects, this is Monocle’s guide to making better cities, be it new technology, state-of-the-art subways or compact apartments. Nominee in the Smartest Podcast category of the 2019 British Podcast awards.
Language:
English
Contact:
Midori House, 1 Dorset Street, London, W1U 4EG, UK +44 20 7725 4388
Email:
info@monocle.com
Episodes
Want to find utopia? Try Columbia, Maryland
9/4/2025
We visit one of the US’s more successful attempts at a utopian society, as well as a mass-timber tower in Portland and the winners of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
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Duration:00:31:38
Tall Stories 474: Fuggerei, Augsburg – Germany’s 88-cent rent
9/1/2025
Valerie Hamilton takes us to the world’s oldest public-housing complex, which has a very unique payment system.
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Duration:00:05:22
Crowdfunding community projects, personalised airport terminals and a Swiss folk festival
8/28/2025
We explore a crowdfunding platform for community projects, learn how to personalise the airport-retail experience and head to the Olten Chilbi folk festival in Switzerland.
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Duration:00:33:42
Tall Stories 473: The Hope for Peace Monument, Beirut
8/25/2025
Noor Amylia Hilda takes us to the outskirts of Beirut to visit a monument for peace constructed from instruments of war.
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Duration:00:05:31
How good design affects a city beyond the aesthetic – from coastal resilience to safer transit
8/21/2025
We unpack two stories exemplifying the principle that thoughtful design can have a deeper impact than just being pleasant to look at.
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Duration:00:27:31
Tall Stories 472: Al-Nawfara Coffee Shop, Damascus
8/18/2025
Liam Syed takes us to a café in Damascus that serves up regional favourites blended with stories of the Syrian capital’s past.
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Duration:00:04:49
How can the arts and culture sectors boost a city’s economy?
8/14/2025
We assess how cultural spaces, music venues and arts festivals can bring a city economic success.
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Duration:00:29:02
Tall Stories 471: Aalto Siilo – the ugliest building in Oulu
8/11/2025
Wif Stenger describes how the so-called “ugliest building in Oulu” can be redesigned to serve as a community treasure.
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Duration:00:05:25
Earning the commute – how do we get city centres humming again?
8/7/2025
We chair a roundtable conversation on the future of the office and how good design can bring people back to our city centres.
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Duration:00:28:21
Tall Stories 470: Szimpla Kert, Budapest
8/4/2025
Geetanjali Krishna takes us to Budapest’s pioneering “ruin bar” to see how urban environments persevere through destruction.
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Duration:00:05:47
How citizens stay informed: why strong city journalism matters
7/31/2025
We review some strong city journalism to see how these publications and productions are helping city residents to stay informed about the environments that they live, work and play in.
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Duration:00:36:53
Tall Stories 469: Tyra: the World’s Largest Dinosaur, Drumheller
7/28/2025
Sheena Rossiter tells us the story of Tyra, the world’s largest dinosaur, and how the community and the rest of Canada are reacting to news of her removal.
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Duration:00:06:16
Streets as third spaces
7/24/2025
We are in the United States this week to see how one of the world’s most car-dependent nations can make its streets more pedestrian friendly.
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Duration:00:28:39
Live from the Brookfield x Monocle liveable cities celebration
7/22/2025
To celebrate the release of Monocle’s Quality of Life Survey 2025, we record a special edition of the programme in association with Brookfield from the rooftop of their smart new offices in Mayfair, London.
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Duration:00:33:58
Tall Stories 468: SoMA Residences, New York
7/21/2025
Naomi Xu Elegant investigates the largest office-to-residential conversion in American history, which was recently completed in New York.
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Duration:00:07:24
Adaptive reuse, shaping cities through retail and Vienna’s climate neutrality
7/17/2025
We look at adaptive reuse through two lenses: a blockbuster case in the UK capital and an attempt to get European cities to legislate for less demolition.
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Duration:00:32:18
Tall Stories 467: Shanghai’s urban transformation
7/14/2025
Tomas Pinheiro explores how the millennia-old settlement of Shanghai has grown into China’s most populous urban area.
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Duration:00:08:36
Rebuilding Ukraine, forensic architecture and the Yongsan Garrison
7/10/2025
We look at the effects that war and conflict can have on our cities, and how we go about rebuilding our urban areas better than before.
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Duration:00:31:08
Tall Stories 466: Supreme Court Building, Washington
7/7/2025
Charlotte McDonald-Gibson explains the design secrets and quirks behind this neoclassical US Supreme Court Building in Washington.
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Duration:00:06:49
‘Designing the American Century’ & ‘Women Architects at Work’
7/3/2025
We’re calling another meeting of ‘The Urbanist’ bookclub to review two titles: ‘Designing the American Century’ and ‘Women Architects at Work’.
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Duration:00:30:37