Monocle on Design
592 episodes - English - Latest episode: 5 days ago - ★★★★ - 59 ratingsEverything you need to know about the world of design, from furniture to fashion and craft to architecture. Expect fresh stories, new finds and designers and all the latest news from the world’s most exciting studios.
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Episodes
Coffee with David Chipperfield
April 16, 2019 19:02We check in with David Chipperfield to talk coffee pots and ask how the right kind of design can help combat our obsession with consumerism. Plus: are designers under constant pressure to innovate?
Extra: Why go to the Milan Furniture Fair?
April 11, 2019 18:15Salone Del Mobile is one of the biggest dates in the design diary but why do so many people flock to the city?
Salone del Mobile 2019
April 09, 2019 19:02Patricia Urquiola mulls over the Milan furniture fair and Robert Bound muses on the art of the meet-and-greet. Plus: creative director of Firmdale Hotels and homewares designer Kit Kemp talks to Josh Fehnert about her winsome new book.
Extra: Japan’s 2020 vision
April 04, 2019 16:50The countdown to Tokyo’s 2020 Olympics has already begun. And as Japan unveils the designs commissioned for the event, one question arises: what can good design do for a country’s image?
Why craft matters
April 02, 2019 19:02The intersection of craft and utility at the inaugural Harewood House biennial and the opening of retailer Galeries Lafayette’s latest space in Paris.
Extra: LA’s Sixth Street Viaduct
March 28, 2019 16:15The Sixth Street Viaduct, best known as a drag-race hotspot from films such as ‘Grease’ and ‘Drive’, is about to get a new look as part of a $450m regeneration project.
Architecture and the silver screen
March 26, 2019 19:02We’re in Tinseltown for the Architecture and Design Film Festival. Josh Fehnert talks to founder Kyle Bergman and Los Angeles’ chief design officer and filmmaker Christopher Hawthorne about the city’s sometimes uneasy relationship with its own buildings.
Extra: Future bridge-builders
March 21, 2019 15:55Bridges have long bound our societies together. But in recent years their role in our cities has changed and they’re reinvigorating urban life. We examine how a simple feat of engineering becomes an engaging public space.
The quiet architect: Kevin Roche
March 19, 2019 19:02The Irish-born Pritzker prize-winning architect Kevin Roche died this month at the age of 96. We revisit his lifetime of achievements in a feature-length interview with the maestro recorded in 2016.
Extra: Best brew: Bialetti’s Moka pot
March 14, 2019 16:13After suffering bad debts, Italian product manufacturer Bialetti hopes the Moka pot can perk up its future.
Sydney style: Akira Isogawa
March 12, 2019 19:02We head to Sydney to meet Japanese-born Australian fashion designer Akira Isogawa in his atelier and talk about his childhood in Kyoto, his take on slow fashion and the first major exhibition exploring his career. Plus: what London should have learned from the Thamesmead housing estate.
Extra: What makes an album’s artwork a hit?
March 07, 2019 13:45Album covers can be as coveted as the discs they serve as packaging for. But what does it take to achieve iconic status?
Extra: Right on time: Vienna’s Silver Arrow
February 28, 2019 12:00The Silver Arrow, the first generation of Vienna’s U-Bahn trains, was awarded the state design prize in 1981. Today the train is approaching its final destination but the design is not yet scheduled for departure.
Meeting Irma Boom
February 26, 2019 19:02We sit down with Dutch graphic designer Irma Boom to ask why she considers book design to be a feat of architecture, the future of inkless printing and why we should judge books by their cover. Plus: Josh Fehnert runs through the design headlines with the V&A’s Rory Hyde.
Extra: Terry Farrell’s Comyn Ching Triangle
February 21, 2019 17:15A tour of Sir Terry Farrell’s Comyn Ching Triangle in London’s Seven Dials. Dr David Knight of the Royal College of Art decodes the maestro’s masterwork in an episode to accompany our feature-length interview with Sir Terry.
Meeting Sir Terry Farrell
February 19, 2019 19:02Architect Sir Terry Farrell’s playful pastiche of styles can be seen from the MI6 building to the Breakfast Television Centre in London. His six-decade career has veered from masterplanning city blocks to building train stations in China. Josh Fehnert sits down with the postmodern master.
Extra: Stockholm’s Beauty Council
February 14, 2019 12:30Pushing architectural boundaries can be a challenge in Stockholm. It’s a historic, low-rise, waterfront city and any new developments are policed by a unique state-funded body called the ‘skönhetsrådet’ or Beauty Council. We find out more.
Will design books survive?
February 12, 2019 19:02Has the world of digital turned the page on design book publishing? We ask Phaidon’s new editor at large, Spencer Bailey. Plus: we shed some light on Stockholm’s design week.
Extra: Remembering Florence Knoll
February 07, 2019 16:00Florence Knoll’s influence on design in the workplace has been immeasurable, but how will the brand continue her work in a new age?
The robots are coming
February 05, 2019 19:02Why an architecture team is turning to a robotic arm for a helping hand. Plus: we ask a UCL professor for help understanding the ramifications of robots in design and ‘Disegno’ editor in chief Oli Stratford joins Josh Fehnert for a flick through his magazine picks for the month.
Extra: Edoardo Gellner
January 31, 2019 16:00Those lucky enough to find themselves in the Dolomites should seek out the work of an overlooked architectural master: Edoardo Gellner.
Toronto: a design city in the making?
January 29, 2019 19:02Is Toronto a design city in the making? Monocle’s Toronto team host a special edition of the programme to assess the state of the city’s design sectors – and their burgeoning influence on design markets elsewhere.
Extra: Neue Holzbau
January 24, 2019 15:30From the handsome exposed rafters of an ice rink in Davos to the spa-like wooden trimmings of a new public swimming pool in Nyon, timber specialist Neue Holzbau is refining sporting buildings in Switzerland and beyond.
Weaving: a narrative
January 22, 2019 19:02A journey into the warp and weft of weaving with UK designer Eleanor Pritchard. Plus: why Philippe Starck adores apple skins and rattan is the material of the moment at Maison et Objet.
Extra: Room to breathe
January 17, 2019 12:10A new gallery and arts venue called The Shed is opening in New York in April. The hook? It has a movable shell that can be adapted to suit different events.
Architecture in the Amazon
January 15, 2019 19:02Can canny design save Brazil’s forests and the people who live in them? We speak to São Paulo practice Aleph Zero, which thinks so. Plus: the Copenhagen architect’s office opening up to the public and tech for the year ahead.
Extra: Nobel intentions
January 10, 2019 17:00Controversy tainted last year's Nobel prize and a visual rebrand was needed. But how do you create a good impression where a bad one lingers?
Design: On the cards
January 08, 2019 19:02Monocle’s creative director Richard Spencer Powell joins Josh Fehnert to discuss good, bold (and plain bad) business-card design. Plus, a peek into the studio of an Indonesian architecture practice that’s making waves.
Logo design
January 01, 2019 19:02Can a simple logo convey a sophisticated message? We speak to Helsinki-based creative agency Kokoro & Moi and ask why fashion-brand logos are starting to look samey. Plus: we pay tribute to Chicago’s iconic skyline.
2018 in review
December 25, 2018 19:02As the year ends, we explore some of the highlights from 2018, including California’s mid-century modernism, meeting Mexican architect Frida Escobedo and exploring Alison and Peter Smithson’s renovated Smithson Plaza.
Extra: Yukiwa – Japan’s silver service
December 20, 2018 17:00Yukiwa, a 106-year-old family-run business is known throughout Japan for manufacturing elegant items (from napkin rings to a European sherbert trolley) that offer both restaurants and homes pieces with extra panache.
The Internet of Things
December 18, 2018 19:02We ask how technology and connectedness are changing product design and transforming everything from homes to our cities. Guests include Kohler’s Mark Bickerstaffe, Ron Bakker of PLP Architecture and Sean Affleck of Make Architects.
Extra: Absent architecture
December 13, 2018 15:28While the architects at Foster + Partners await the green light for their Tulip proposal, we explore some of the buildings that could have been but never were.
Extra: Printworks
December 06, 2018 15:30The cavernous halls of the Printworks, an old newspaper printing plant in London district Canada Water, have been turned into a major destination for lovers of electronic music. The team behind the project are keen to get the most out of their building, which also happens to be a historical landmark in its own right.
Remembering Jørn Utzon
December 04, 2018 19:02On the centenary of celebrated (and controversial) Danish architect Jørn Utzon’s birth, we assess his best-known work: the Sydney Opera House. Plus: Pentagram’s latest partner Yuri Suzuki on sound and we find out how to design a fire.
Extra: Brains and Braun
November 29, 2018 15:45London-based research project Das Programm focuses on the industrial-design legacy of Dieter Rams and Frankfurt-based firm Braun. Here Das Programm’s director Dr Peter Kapos talks about the enduring influence of both.
Home futures
November 27, 2018 19:02How will fewer resources, a lack of space and new technologies impact the way we build our homes? We seek answers at a new exhibition and talk to a designer about creating tiny homes. Plus: quantifying the value of design.
Extra: Chip off the old block: Thomas Chippendale
November 22, 2018 16:00The 18th century is known for the Enlightenment, a few bloody revolutions and the work of Britain’s most eminent and enduring cabinet-maker Thomas Chippendale. His journey to prominence is being documented by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the exhibition ‘Chippendale’s Director: The Designs and Legacy of a Furniture Maker’.
Hem line
November 20, 2018 19:02A sit-down with Petrus Palmér, CEO and founder of Stockholm furniture firm Hem. Plus: we decamp to Dubai to see if the desert is fertile ground for a new crop of design thinkers and look at why Sweden says no to a new Apple store.
Extra: Stan Lee and comic-book art
November 15, 2018 20:00Comic-book fans are mourning the passing of Stan Lee, who helped to make a niche industry popular and lucrative. We discuss the growing appreciation of graphics and ask whether comic-book illustrators are due more recognition.
Elemental: the work of Alejandro Aravena
November 13, 2018 19:02We meet Pritzker prize-winning architect Alejandro Aravena to talk politics, climate change and architecture’s role in turbulent times. Plus: what is director Wes Anderson up to in Vienna?
Extra: The big Apple
November 08, 2018 16:54Steve Jobs once said ‘Design is how it works’ – and it was a mantra that became a cornerstone in the success of iPhone. This week, as Apple launches its new iPad Pro (the latest in a long line of recent releases), we look back at some of the design features that introduced touchscreens, among many other technological advancements.