Tyler Brûlé, Andrew Tuck, Chiara Rimella, Chandra Kurt and Eemeli Isoaho on the weekend’s top stories. Plus, we check in with our friends and contributors in London, Amsterdam and Ljubljana.
Tag Archives: London
Saturday Morning News: Latest Headlines From London (May 1, 2021)
Georgina Godwin sets the tone for the weekend: a look at the day’s fresh papers, Monocle’s editor in chief Andrew Tuck’s column, plus the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2021 shortlist.
Sunday Morning Podcast: Latest News From Zurich, Bangkok And London
Monocle’s editorial director, Tyler Brûlé, talks to film producer Solène Léger, Rob Cox from Reuters and Christoph Amend from ‘Zeit Magazin’. Plus, contributions from Monocle’s team around the world.
Saturday Podcast: World Headlines From London
Stefanie Bolzen of ‘Die Welt’ on Germany’s federal elections; Lance Price on the papers; Andrew Mueller’s weekly news roundup; and the London Library celebrates a big birthday.
Design: ‘Airo’ Concept Electric Car From Heatherwick Studio
Heatherwick Studio’s concept electric car, Airo, launched at the Shanghai Motor Show today 19th April 2021. Designed for IM Motors, Airo is a fully electric vehicle with autonomous and driver-controlled modes. It will run on electric power, producing no fossil fuel pollutants as it moves around the city.
But the car goes further in its environmental ambition as it’s also equipped with a state-of-the-art HEPA filtering system that actively cleans the air from the pollution of other vehicles as it passes through the under-carriage, leaving the air around it cleaner.
Inside, the car’s customisable interior can be configured into multiple functional spaces that turn the car into a moving room or a space for your life. With so much attention to detail and choice of materials, this is clearly a space to spend time in even when you’re not on a journey. The seats rotate from a traditional forward-facing driving position to face each other for social activities such as dining on the four-leaf table which neatly folds away to transform the space into a lounge. A foldaway screen turns the interior into a perfect gaming-pod and when you’ve exhausted yourself, the beautifully contoured seats fully recline to form a spacious double bed.
Using the latest technology in glass, the fully glazed roof becomes opaque on command for total privacy. Alongside the car, the studio has also designed a charging station for IM Motors that will become part of the infrastructure of the city. Formed from industrial materials including weathered steel, the charging station aims to become part of the urban fabric for decades to come. It has a retractable wire and an ergonomic handle for easy connection to electric vehicles.
Thomas Heatherwick, Founder of Heatherwick Studio said: “Airo isn’t simply another electric car that doesn’t pollute the air. Instead, using the latest HEPA filter technology, it goes further by also vacuuming-up pollutants from other cars as it drives along. Designed to simultaneously address the global space shortage, Airo is also a multi-functional room with extra space for dining, working, gaming or even sleeping. As a new room for our lives, with a changing view, Airo is a car intended to transport us to a cleaner and better future.”
The concept for IM Motors Airo designed by Heatherwick Studio was launched today and the car is expected to go into production in 2023.
Walks: ‘Trafalgar Square To The London Eye’ (4K)
Trafalgar Square is a public square in the City of Westminster, Central London, established in the early 19th century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross.
The London Eye, or the Millennium Wheel, is a cantilevered observation wheel on the South Bank of the River Thames in London. It is Europe’s tallest cantilevered observation wheel, and is the most popular paid tourist attraction in the United Kingdom with over 3 million visitors annually.
Sunday Morning Podcast: Latest News From Zurich, Tokyo, London & Reykjavik
Tyler Brûlé, Andrew Tuck, Chandra Kurt and Florian Egli cover the biggest stories this weekend, with a look at what’s making headlines in London, Tokyo and Reykjavik.
Poetic Views: London’s ‘Maida Vale’ Inspired Lord Byron & Robert Browning
The new crop of Italianate villas, iced white with stucco like giant cakes, and the rows of brick terraces and mansion blocks that followed them soon became home to publishers (Charles Ollier), artists (Sir John Tenniel) and poets: Robert Browning lived at 19, Warwick Crescent for more than 20 years and the pool where the Grand Union and Regent’s canals meet is now called after him.
Watercolor Paintings by Liam O’Farrell
Although Browning has been credited with naming the canal area Little Venice, it was Byron that first (facetiously) compared the basin to the Italian lagoon.
Story has it that the poet used to walk along the Paddington arm of the Grand Union Canal with his publisher, John Murray — helpfully pointing to the bridge where another publisher had once drowned himself — and was inspired to write that ‘there would be nothing to make the canal of Venice more poetical than that of Paddington, were it not for its artificial adjuncts’; a fair point, considering that, at the time, the London canals were lined with warehouses and wrapped in soot.
Even today, however, the elegant terraces halfway up Randolph Avenue, with their tripartite arched windows, are far more reminiscent of the Italian city than Little Venice itself, where the serene buildings and tree-lined banks have a rather more bucolic feel.
SATURDAY MORNING: NEWS FROM LONDON (APRIL 17)
The weekend’s biggest discussion topics, with Georgina Godwin. A look at the day’s papers and what we learned this week. Plus: author Mohsin Zaidi and World Book Night.
River Views: Boat Tour Of Thames River, London (4K)
The River Thames, known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At 215 miles, it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the River Severn.
RIVER BUS STOPS 00:00▪️North Greenwich (The O2) 11:41▪️Greenwich 15:51▪️Masthouse Terrace 18:29▪️Greenland (Surrey Quays) 20:44▪️Canary Wharf 28:23▪️St. Katharine’s Pier 25:59▪️Tower Bridge 32:54▪️London Bridge City Pier 36:24▪️Bankside Pier 44:57▪️Embankment 47:26▪️Westminster Pier 52:29▪️Millbank
Boomers Daily 