Monocle #193: Design Awards 2026

Monocle is the magazine figurehead of the international design/business/culture media empire launched by Tyler Brule in 2007: multiple magazines, live events, 24-hour radio and a branding agency.

For May 2026 Monocle returns with their annual ‘Design Awards’ edition, spotlighting ‘the top 25 architects, studios and products to improve your life.’ Categories span ‘Best headquarters’, ‘Leading creative director’, ‘Top armchair’ and more, with featured people, projects and products hailing from Denmark to Namibia. Elsewhere, time is of the essence, with a special focus on horology. Features include an ode to slow travel by Ann Marie Gardner—Monocle’s former Americas bureau chief gamely embarked upon a two day trip from Winnipeg to the remote town of Churchill in the middle of winter to report on rural Canadian existence—as well as, writer Mary Holland and photographer Rena Efendi’s examination of the revival of a neighbourhood in downtown Cairo that, until recently, time seemed to have forgotten.