What they found was striking. Thirty years on, urban pedestrians were walking, on average, 15 per cent more quickly. Fewer people could also be described as “lingering”, from 43 per cent in 1980 to 26 per cent in 2010. There was also a decline in people forming groups on the street either preplanned meetings or spontaneous encounters. “People are now spending less time in public spaces and moving through them at a faster pace,” the researchers concluded.

Why are we walking so quickly?
Tom Vanderbilt
Monocle, April 2025

“In order for something great to come out, you actually have to put in the time, energy, sweat and tears,” he said. “We have all of these tools of convenience today but how are you going to learn to be a great designer if you take short cuts?”

Yves Béhar
Monocle Minute in Deaign
April 16/04/2025

AI and the Arts

It’s a tool. The creativity still lies in how you use it and how much culture, art and information you have ingested over the years. Our brains are the original large language models."

Emily Yang, Co-founder and artist, Shibuya. film
Monocle, April 2025

“Models force you to edit your work. With a computer, you can make objects as big or as small as you want. But with models, you actually have to make decisions.”

Architect Giancarlo Valle
Monocle, April 2025

“If we must live in a multi-order world, we need to imagine it as a mesh of relations, where everyone and everything matter, and their futures must not be dictated by the big powers. It is time to rethink how we govern and are governed today.”
ELENA KOROSTELEVA
Professor of Politics and Global Sustainable Development
Monocle, April 2025

“Incorporating art, design and culture into co-living spaces can help residents to feel rooted and inspired. They are no longer just looking for a place to live; they want to belong.”

Fang Low Figment, Singapore
Monocle March 2025

Style and substance both matter, remember. To think otherwise is to underestimate people and condemn our many-hued world to miserly monochrome.

Josh Fehnert Monocle’s editor. Monocle Minute March 2025

Sisyphean
Denoting or relating to a task that can never be completed

Rather than helping humans, fully automated objects actually limit our capacity to respond. I like to interact with life, with the world.
watchmaker David Rodríguez
Galicia, Spain
Monocle December 2024

If you were told you had six months to live, whose hand would you want to hold.

Nigel Latta