Monocle's October Issue Explores Style, Architecture and Auckland's City Rail Link

Monocle's October issue argues that aesthetics and coolness drive economics, architecture and urbanism, using Auckland as a case study. New Zealand's largest city, once mocked by travel writer Paul Theroux as like "touching down on a distant star" and reportedly called "shut" by former Singapore prime minister Lee Kuan Yew in the 1990s, has rebuilt its post-industrial waterfront over 20 years and is preparing to open the City Rail Link, the country's first underground metro and largest infrastructure project. Reporter Gordon Peake assesses the transformation. The issue also features Grace Charlton's interview with Lebanon-born, Paris-based architect Lina Ghotmeh, who has won competitions for a Hermès factory and Bahrain's pavilion at Expo 2025 in Osaka, and is now redesigning the British Museum's Western Range galleries in London, home to objects from ancient Greece, Egypt and Rome. Ghotmeh says the museum must be a contemporary place for debate and learning, not a static showcase. Monocle, launched on 14 February 2007, will spotlight its own history ahead of its 20th anniversary. The issue also documents the annual Quality of Life Conference, held this year in Lisbon.