Monocle on Design

Fashion to the rescue

Monocle’s Jamie Waters on how fashion turned its hand to creating medical products. Plus, Josh Fehnert talks to Katie Treggiden about the design headlines and a return to craft and we visit a Spanish design firm that has retooled as a mask-maker.

Extra: Fashion comes to the rescue

Jamie Waters explains how the fashion industry emerged as a vital contributor in the fight against the pandemic. Many brands, big and small, have pivoted to make masks and other protective equipment.

The home front

With many of us adjusting to life under lockdown we ask ‘Disegno’ magazine editor Oli Stratford about how the design industry has been affected. Plus, Nolan Giles on Monocle’s home manifesto and Josh Fehnert on why bumps and bruises tell better stories than flush finishes when it comes to turning houses to homes.

Extra: Earphone etiquette

Listen up as Monocle's Nolan Giles reflects on the ubiquity of Apple's AirPods headphones and the social etiquette surrounding them.

Just my type

We look back at a few of our favourite typography tales and hear about a Hague-based foundry making Arabic fonts, a calligrapher's adventures in ink, an east London sign painter and a typeface analyst. Write on.

Extra: Courtyard living

Charmaine Chan, design editor for ‘South China Morning Post’ believes that courtyards offer an excellent urban solution to domestic solitude. She explains how they can be hubs of community and calm.

Graphic design digest

Coming up today we’re talking graphic design and digging into the archives to find some of our favourite recent interviews. We discuss the art of data visualisation with Steven Heller and Josh Fehnert asks Julius Wiedemann about the golden age of mid-century logos.

Extra: Setting the scene

In the age of coronavirus, broadcast news has never been more important. We visit Bloomberg TV's London HQ, designed by Norman Foster, to find out what it takes to build a cutting-edge news set.

Architecture and the media, design in Asia and Josef Frank

This week we offer some design-minded diversions from the heavy headlines. We talk design in Asia with Hong Kong-based editor Suzy Annetta and Josh Fehnert discusses how Austrian designer Josef Frank found favour in Sweden.

Extra: Eileen Gray

Underappreciated in her lifetime, the career of late Irish architect and designer Eileen Gray is the subject of a timely new exhibition at The Bard Graduate Center Gallery in New York. Jennifer Goff, curator of the Eileen Gray collection at the National Museum of Ireland, tells us more.

Ilse Crawford, Yasmeen Lari and Vienna’s mall maestro

British designer Ilse Crawford discusses her appetising revamp of Helsinki's Alvar Aalto-designed Savoy restaurant. Plus: we meet Pakistani architect Yasmeen Lari, and Josh Fehnert discusses malls and the future of retail.

Extra: 'Cars: Accelerating the Modern World'

'Cars: Accelerating the Modern World' is an exhibition at London's V&A museum examining the shifting role of the automobile in everything from social style to mechanics. We speak to its curator, Brendan Cormier.

Lahore, the kimono and the Pritzker prize

We talk improvised urbanism in Lahore and how the kimono influenced the world of fashion. Plus: Josh Fehnert interviews Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, winners of this year’s Pritzker prize for architecture.

Extra: Wayfinding: a design history of the National Park Service

The National Park Service spans hundreds of sites across the US, including monuments, seashores, memorials and parks. Brian Kelley and Jesse Reed survey the design history of the agency's visual identity.

Meeting Willo Perron, Aric Chen and Jill Magid

Designer Willo Perron talks about creating a stage-show that pops for everyone from Jay Z to Florence and the Machine. Plus a word with Design Miami’s curatorial director and a documentary maker on her latest film all about Mexican architect Luis Barragán.

Extra: Fungus among us

How can nature help us when it comes to building products that last? Enter seaweed, silk and cellulose. And how about a few design tips taken from the humble mushroom? Monocle’s Christy Evans unearths some answers.

Designing Austria

We’re focusing on the small but mighty nation of Austria and delving into the country’s craft and design clout. Josh Fehnert grills our design editor Nolan Giles on the alpine nation’s high design, we visit an exhibition on Austrian fashion in Vienna and we talk to fashion designer Lena Hoschek.

Extra: Go with the flow – riverside revival

The banks of Oslo’s Akerselva River are experiencing a wave of change. Landscape architect and planner Ola Bettum explains how to redesign a riverside.

Headline design

Oli Stratford of Disegno joins us for the design headlines. Plus, a visit to “The Porcelain Room” exhibition in Milan, and we speak with the design minds behind family-run Italian furniture business Living Divani.

Extra: Who was Corita Kent?

Director of Los Angeles’s Corita Art Center, Nellie Scott, tells us more about the ethos of artist, educator and designer Corita Kent, who worked in LA and Boston and was an influential figure in the pop art movement.

Sweden’s design future

We meet some of the brightest up-and-coming designers at the Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair. Plus: a discussion with Sweden’s first national architect, Helena Bjarnegård, and we talk to Luca Nichetto and Robert Acouri, two of the minds behind new Paris-based brand and boutique La Manufacture.

Extra: Does architecture always have to be a building?

In the 1960s and 1970s, groups of emerging designers across the globe began experimenting with architectural forms. Matthew Butcher and Luke Pearson tell us more about some of the playful projects by the avant-garde practitioners of the time.

Drawing inspiration

We speak to Foster + Partners’ art director Narinder Sagoo about the process of sketching new buildings. Plus: we visit the Danish Architecture Centre, and meet two friends channelling nostalgia into the design of Brooklyn’s Turk’s Inn restaurant.

Extra: Rules and risk

Marjorie Allen was a postwar pioneer of the Adventure Playground movement in the UK. Her story features in “Play Well”, an exhibition at London’s Wellcome Collection. We meet the exhibition’s curator, Shamita Sharmacharja, to learn more.

Meeting Francis Kéré

An in-depth discussion with Berlin-based, Burkina Faso-born architect Diébédo Francis Kéré, reflecting on how his practise Kéré Architecture creates buildings with both a sense of place and purpose. Plus, we meet design fair Maison et Objet’s designer of the year – lighting and interiors specialist Michael Anastassiades.

Extra 176: Bright ideas

Designer Barbara Palatin Doyle shares her inspiration behind her lamp Charta Alba, and shines a light on a new collection of table lamps from Studio Palatin.

Extra: Bright ideas

Designer Barbara Palatin Doyle shares her inspiration behind her lamp Charta Alba, and shines a light on a new collection of table lamps from Studio Palatin.

Class acts

We meet the minds behind two new spaces designed to inspire creativity. Dutch architect Ellen van Loon discusses her design made with architectural firm Oma for Brighton College in the UK. And we also talk music-studio design with musician and producer Dave Okumu and architect Julius Taminiau.

Extra: Cuba’s golden age of graphic design

Posters have always sought to persuade and this week we review the work of the Organisation of Solidarity of the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America which is the subject of a bold exhibition at London’s House of Illustration.

Cover stars

Monocle’s creative director Richard Spencer-Powell and culture editor Chiara Rimella join Josh Fehnert for a review of the best-designed magazines on the newsstand. Plus: Raffaello Napoleone, CEO of Pitti Immagine, on the Florentine trade show’s place on the global fashion calendar.

Extra: Divine architecture: Our Lady of the Cadore

Amid the natural beauty of the Dolomites sits a remarkable work of human endeavour: the Church of Our Lady of the Cadore. Ivan Carvalho pays tribute and asks an architectural historian about this amazing structure.

2020 vision

We look ahead to the standout design trends for the year ahead with architect Sir Peter Cook and design and craft writer Katie Treggiden.

The best of 2019

A look back at the year in design, including discussions with architect Elizabeth Diller, the books of Irma Boom and how design can help tackle homelessness.

Fashion 2020

Monocle's fashion editor Jamie Waters welcomes designer Paula Gerbase, buyer Dean Cook and fashion PR Adam Shapiro for an in-depth discussion on the future of the clothing industry.

Extra: Mapping mid-century modern

We meet writer and author Dominic Bradbury to discuss his recently published architecture book, ‘Atlas of Mid-Century Modern Houses’.

Building better futures

We head to the World Architecture Festival to meet three minds pushing architecture forward – Petra Blaisse, Kim Herforth Nielsen and Eva Franch i Gilabert.

Extra: Moving to Mars

We’ve been cleared for take-off from the ‘Moving to Mars’ exhibition at London’s Design Museum. We hear from the show’s chief curator, Justin McGuirk, about space-age fashion and the difficulty of designing for life on another planet.

Design Miami

Monocle’s design editor Nolan Giles heads to Design Miami to meet some of the most dynamic talents at the annual showcase. Including Australian designers Broached Commissions, curator Alice Stori Liechtenstein, artist and designer Daniel Arsham and mayor of Miami Beach Dan Gelber.

Extra: What should a hospital sound like?

When Helsinki’s new children’s hospital was designed, its sound and acoustics were a major consideration. We hear how good sound design can make a huge difference for patients and staff in a stressful environment.

Los Angeles special

This special edition of the programme is hosted by Monocle’s Carlota Rebelo in Los Angeles. She reports on what defines the Southern California aesthetic, a new streetlight competition and textiles from BlockShop.

Extra: Perth Stadium

From Rotterdam to Milan, new stadiums are nearing completion. But can a stadium structure reflect its location? We look to western Australia to find out how Perth Stadium’s new parkland embraces its city.

Toronto special

This special edition of the programme is hosted by our team in Toronto, unpicking Canada’s design credentials, from graphic design and architecture to the country’s fine roster of design festivals.

Extra: In praise of shade

The planet is getting warmer and city residents are starting to feel the heat in buildings designed for cooler climes. Air conditioning is one – somewhat wasteful – solution but should architects and designers consider throwing some shade instead? Roll up, roll up, for our report on the merits of awnings.

Greek revival

The Greek economy is improving despite a ruinous financial crisis, and today more Athenians are heading home and looking to help shape the city for the better. Our Athens-themed dispatch delves into three industries (from urban planning to fashion and hospitality) to see how design is offering new solutions in this ancient city.

Extra: City security: Oslo’s new neighbourhood

Oslo is currently redesigning its government quarter. The administrative buildings here were damaged by a terror attack in 2011 and are set to be demolished to make way for shiny new replacements and large public parks to boot. We meet the architects behind the overhaul.

London with Simon Jenkins

Author and historian Simon Jenkins talks to Josh Fehnert about how London came to look the way it does. Plus: Architectural historian Elain Harwood on the UK’s overlooked art deco buildings.

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Extra: Show stoppers

How do you redesign the familiar and the everyday? We visit London’s Ace Hotel, which recently invited Diego Faivre, Boaz Cohen and Shay Alkalay to refresh objects such as doorstops and rugs as part of the ‘Custom Exercise’ design project.

Keeping it natural

We meet celebrated architect Tom Kundig, co-owner and design principal of Seattle-based partnership Olson Kundig, to discuss how his enthusiasm for natural materials flows into his work. Plus: Maria Cheung of London-based architects and designers Squire and Partners joins us to discuss how to design workspaces that are creative, productive and fun.

Extra: Game changers

Mattel have released a new braille edition of classic card game Uno. Games expert Dr Michael James Heron explains design choices encouraging wider accessibility for the visually impaired in board games and card games.