Monocle 24: The Urbanist

This week we make our way to Regent’s Park to find traditional London park benches: wooden armrests at either end and wide enough to accommodate three ample backsides. Who doesn’t love a good park bench?

From innovations in public lighting to what Madrid’s new Google Campus has done for the city, how has the digital revolution caught up with our cities? Plus: Vienna’s uneasy relationship with technology and a word from our Hong Kong bureau chief.

This week we head to Seoul to visit a neighbourhood that’s beaten the odds. Ikseon-dong was the country’s first real-estate development project back in the early 1930s – but there’s not much left in the city from that period.

There are many ways to talk about migration and at a time when the debate is so divided, we highlight some of the projects and stories doing it the right way.

Forty years of communist planning left an indelible architectural mark on Slovakia, with rows upon rows of shabby prefabricated blocks. By some estimates Slovakia is home to more of them than any other country in the former Soviet bloc. But a recent project in Bratislava has demonstrated that the outdated buildings can be updated to meet modern standards.

In this special live episode of The Urbanist, Monocle editor Andrew Tuck hands over the floor to Arne Olsson, managing director of Folkhem, Martin Barry, founder of Resite, Elizabeth Reynolds, director of Urben and Nick Rees, architectural director of The Collective, who will discuss the future of the city.

We explore the 32-storey skyscraper that is one of Milan’s most influential pieces of modern architecture.

City-building is tough – we try to imagine how tough it is in a secluded country such as North Korea. Meanwhile, Cairo plans to build a new administrative capital in the desert. Plus: what do fashion houses do for our cities?

Our Hong Kong bureau chief James Chambers gives us a snapshot of how the city’s historical ties with the UK can be seen all across its streets – and what that means for residents.

A name can be a very powerful thing for a city: it’s not only how people identify locations and buildings but one of the most important branding tools too. But what happens when a name simply stops working?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.