As the big media store chains disappear, Japan’s most successful book, music and magazine seller has opened a project that challenges everyone. We visit the floors of a refreshed retail landscape.
Tokyo-based company Culture Convenience Club brings together quality of life and technology in Tsutaya Electrics. The well-designed shop displays hi-tech products alongside books, plants and plenty of comfy seats.
Rio is blessed with more raw natural beauty than probably any other city on Earth. This, coupled with the conviviality of its residents, the forthcoming Olympics and efforts to finally reduce the poverty gap and improve…
Shopping for electronics can be a harrowing experience, punctuated by flashing screens, garish plastics and strip lights. Not so at Tsutaya Electrics in Tokyo, where products are tastefully presented on wooden desks and…
What’s the future of the city? Eleven writers – urbanists, authors, academics, architects and Monocle editors – look at the battles and pleasures of metropolitan living. From the empty highways of Detroit to the sewers of…
Monocle’s researchers have spent the past months putting the world’s leading cities to the test to find the best places for you to make your base. Last year Copenhagen was the winner of our survey but in 2009 the award goes…
South Korea has created a golf culture that leaves most other nations swinging away in a sandy bunker. Monocle visits some of the country’s top clubs and meets their quirky members and attentive staff.
Our wise contributors unravel the riddles at the heart of our cities: what makes them tick, how they can work better and what nocturnal joys lie within.
Quality of life isn’t just about cycle lanes and roof gardens; our cities need inspirational thinking and ideas from the cultural sphere, too. Here, we profile five players – from a South African rock band to a Tokyo web…
He’s a Turner Prize nominee and has been honoured by the nation but Yinka Shonibare’s work continues to trigger big responses (one critic said hanging was too good for him). On the eve of a new show about our fractious…
From mouthwatering raclette and fireside spots to natural springs to soothe aching muscles and smart spas for ultimate relaxation, let our trusty skiers be your guides to the ultimate Alpine getaway.
Once a workers’ district, the Ehrenfeld neighbourhood in Köln is luring a multi-cultural mix of families and creatives with its competitive housing prices and well- preserved architecture.
Bremen has always been an independent, outward-looking city, but that didn’t help it when the port’s traditional shipbuilding trade went into decline. Now the city has reinvented itself as a hi-tech hub. With low rents, a…