Monocle 24: The Urbanist

Switzerland’s largest city might be best known as a global centre for banking and finance but a quick glance at Zürich’s streets can tell a different story: the city is home to about 1,200 drinking fountains.

We continue our coverage of this year’s edition of CityLab, which brings together the world’s top mayors, urban leaders and innovators. Featuring the Good Chance Theatre in Calais, how Los Angeles is looking to transform its transport, a chat about housing with the mayor of Seattle, Ed Murray, and a new report by the McKinsey Global Institute.

As the world reacts to Donald Trump’s surprise victory in the US presidential elections, our New York bureau chief Ed Stocker takes a stroll along 5th Avenue to examine Trump Tower.

We report from CityLab 2016, a two-and-a-half day summit that has gathered the world’s top mayors, urban leaders and innovators for a series of conversations on ideas that are shaping our planet’s urban centres.

It was a road that was designed to deliver some imperial swagger to London but today there’s something depressing about The Kingsway. Wouldn’t it have been better if the Edwardians had left us a knot of alleys and streets instead?

We learn how Unesco is trying to save Thailand’s landmarks from floods, discover Seattle’s innovative way of catching stormwater and head to Lesotho to profile Africa’s biggest water-transfer project. Plus: ‘Water: California’, a new photo series by photographer Mustafah Abdulaziz, commissioned by the Syngenta Photography Award.

A fox is perhaps the most famous form of urban wildlife, with an estimated 30,000 living in towns and cities across the UK. On this week’s ‘Tall Stories’ our contributing editor Andrew Mueller puts on his fluffy tail and explores what goes on in the mind of a fox that lives in the city.

We meet some friendly otters in Singapore, go on a night out with some Spanish bats and board a plane via JFK’s new animal terminal, the Ark. Plus: falcon-spotting in London with the ‘grandmother of peregrines’.

We uncover the system of protected views that continues to stymie London’s vertical growth.

There’s very little glamour in the way cities get rid of human waste. But it is important to see how they are doing this around the world: from loos at the carnival in Rio de Janeiro and the new public facilities in Madrid to a public toilet playing classical music in Vienna.

We take a tour of one of Toronto’s most fabled discount department stores, first opened in 1948.

Parks and gardens can provide a much needed escape from the day-to-day rush in a city. This week we discover London’s newest community garden south of the river, head to the outskirts of Vienna for a members-only green living experience and catch up with the Nature Society of Singapore.

It could be one of the city’s icons but Belgrade’s Western Gate is not quite as it should be. Also known as the Genex Tower, this relic of the Tito era is the first notable structure seen by many visitors on their way into Serbia’s capital.

We talk to Stephanie Meeks, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, about the quest to revitalise historic buildings in the US. Plus: architecture’s influence on the way we learn, cycling in Hong Kong and part two of our interview with Michael Berkowitz, president of 100 Resilient Cities.

Just a short walk from Florence’s historical centre you’ll find a structure that hosts a cultural centre alongside shops and a housing complex. But once upon a time this building was walled up from the bustling life of the city. We take a look at the fascinating history of Le Murate.