Tall Stories 493: The Tallinn Song Festival Grounds

We explore the Melbourne Metro Tunnel, which has recently opened in the Victorian capital. Plus: Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao joins Monocle’s Ed Stocker to discuss how she challenges norms to champion social housing. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Petri Burtsoff takes us to a festival grounds that acts as a lasting symbol of Estonian national pride.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Carlota Rebelo reports from the World Economic Forum in Davos to share some urban lessons from this year’s meeting. Then: Ed Stocker gives us a run-down on the most recent Holcim Foundation Awards for sustainable construction.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Grace Charlton takes us to a literary stalwart and community pillar in Florence.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’re joined by former City of Toronto chief planner Gregg Lintern to discuss priorities for Canadian cities. Plus: we visit Cascadia to see what has come from the mega-region’s decade-long formal partnership.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Andrew Mueller takes us to the Australian War Memorial to find out the nature of and reasons for its recent refit.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We meet Dr Gary Yohe, a Nobel Peace prize recipient for his work on the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Then: we discover the stories behind Britain’s cooling towers, a brutalist structure that once dominated our skylines.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tomás Pinheiro explains how an act of urban erasure in the Thai capital stole the charm from one of the city’s iconic structures.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Monocle’s editor in chief, Andrew Tuck, rounds up his favourite episodes of ‘Tall Stories’ from 2025.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Monocle’s editor-in-chief Andrew Tuck recalls some of his favourite interviews and reports from the year on ‘The Urbanist’.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.