Monocle 24: The Urbanist

What are the logistical aspects of creating land? We discover the Netherlands’ approach to land reclamation and examine the rise and fall of London’s Garden Bridge. Plus: in Austria even terrible, awful, unplanned architecture gets rewarded.

The Bijlmerbajes in south Amsterdam was designed as a humane prison when it opened in 1978 but in recent years it has taken on a new life: it is now a creative hub for locals and refugees alike.

Bridges are meant to make our cities better connected but sometimes they highlight existing divides. We explore two very different examples in Lisbon and Budapest. Plus: a special report exploring the outskirts of London.

Following the news that Montreal’s Olympic Stadium is to be transformed into a welcome centre for asylum seekers, our Toronto bureau chief Tomos Lewis tells the story of one of the city’s most famed structures.

Highlights and insights from this year’s Urban Resilience Summit by the 100 Resilient Cities network, which assembled more than 500 urban leaders, practitioners and city activists in New York.

This government building that sits just across the river downtown is a postcard for the city. Monocle​’s Sheena Rossiter takes us on a trip to learn​ ​the history behind the iconic building and what it means to her as a native​ ​Edmontonian.

On this week’s episode we look at how religion has shaped our cities: be it how communities gather, influencing popular culture or impacting the levels of pollution.

Construction of this church began in 1509 – and is yet to be completed. The structure is still missing a roof but that’s not necessarily a bad thing: come night-time it is an architectural feature that makes it all the more fascinating.

Join us! A city can only evolve in the right way when citizens and communities are engaged in how changes should take place.

Moscow has been hit by such unseasonable weather this summer that people won’t be surprised if it starts snowing tomorrow. But amid all this chaos there’s one thing that’s reassuringly consistent: poplar fluff.

Making a concrete jungle greener in Brazil, using a new library to promote integration in Toronto and how a bike can suck in air pollution and pump out clean air.

Monocle’s Joleen Goffin hops on her bicycle and takes control of the road as she tells us about the joys of cycling in Amsterdam.

We hear all about the new temporary parliament in Vienna, discover how a temporary pavilion can improve public life and create a community, and ask if pop-up retail spaces can change the way we shop.

For this week’s edition of Tall Stories, The Urbanist’s Carlota Rebelo tells us the story of Lisbon’s Diário de Notícias building, the country's first purpose-built newsroom.

We bring you interviews with the mayor of Prague, Adriana Krnacova; architects David Bravo and Ivan Kucina; lighting designer Leni Schwendinger; and city architect for Warsaw, Marlena Happach.