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.
https://monocle.com/radio/shows/the-urbanist
Gesamtlänge aller Episoden: 18 days 10 hours 14 minutes
Tall Stories 42: London’s gas-lit lamps
This week we go on a stroll around London where about 1,500 gas-powered lamps, some more than 200 years old, still burn brightly.
Sanctuary cities
During this past week the term “sanctuary city” has resurfaced – in great part thanks to Donald Trump. We unpack what a sanctuary city means, look at Europe for an example of integration and ask what should be done differently too.
Tall Stories 41: Ellis Island
For more than 60 years Ellis Island was the busiest immigrant inspection station in the US. We look at the space where more than 12 million immigrants got the opportunity to begin a new life.
Desafio Carioca, Hong Kong and Milan
Almost a month after the new South Island Line was inaugurated, we examine the impact that it had in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, we find out how a plan to build down instead of up could create a new open-air amphitheatre in Milan’s historical centre. Plus: we play a real-life board game in which players roll the dice to roam around Rio de Janeiro.
Tall Stories 40: Redecorating the White House
As Donald Trumps settles in at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, our New York bureau chief Ed Stocker looks at the changes (aesthetically speaking) that he might make within.
Out of the box
This week we look at those slightly unusual structures that make you ask: how did that get built and what does it say about the city that hosts it? We cover some very obvious eyesores, peculiar street furniture and divisive buildings challenging all architectural norms and models. Is it time for us to embrace them?
Tall Stories 39: The Peninsula Hotel
This week we visit the hotel that earned the nickname the “Grand Dame of the Far East”. Our Hong Kong bureau chief James Chambers takes us through the city’s Peninsula Hotel.
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 how Vienna is using 2017 to abolish a very unusual tax.
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?