Andira Urban Services

05/06/2018

Wow!

25/04/2017

Very cool...

Time for a new episode of our monthly round-up of the ten most popular street art pieces featured on StreetArtNews. As usual, this ranking is created by our readers and based entirely on our server’s unique page-views.

20/10/2016

One can never have too many alternative perspectives. Some beautiful pictures...

You've never seen South Africa like this before

01/05/2016

Our cover celebrates small businesses here and everywhere. We are 15 this year.

27/04/2016

"In effect, the city is an important labor-saving technology..."

This also explains why New York City feels so exciting and St. Louis does not.

07/09/2015

Great campaign....

THIS is how you stop people littering.

19/01/2015

Nice. http://youtu.be/SB_0vRnkeOk

We believe that smart ideas can turn the city into a better place. Like a dancing traffic light that makes people wait and watch rather than walk through the...

13/01/2015

Interesting parallels with other regeneration efforts the world over...

HOUSTON—Government-led planning takes a backseat role in this Southeast Texas metropolis. The lack of a zoning code is a matter of local pride.But an apartment building boom has taken hold in the city’s office-tower-filled downtown, and it isn’t just the private sector at work.Nudged by a tax break meant to spur downtown residential construction, developers plan more than 4,200 new apartment units in the area, some of which already are underway, according to the Houston Downtown Management District. The units coming online would more than triple the downtown population of about 3,600, according to the geographic boundaries the district uses.The tax break, passed by Houston’s City Council in 2012, offers relief of up to $15,000 per unit, spread over 15 years. It abates most of an owner’s annual property tax. Most of the new units are rentals, so the benefit goes to the developer.The rationale: It pays to transform the city’s downtown from a primarily office-hours locale where the sidewalks are mostly vacant in the evenings and street-level restaurants are few are far between. New residents will help spur other economic activity like restaurants and retail, backers say. What’s more, the city’s growth in recent years has made for increased citywide traffic gridlock, so many might appreciate living within walking distance of work.A vibrant downtown “has value to us,” said Andy Icken, the City of Houston’s Chief Development Officer.The tax-break program is meant to spark critical mass. It expires after it funds 5,000 units, a nod to the intervention-averse culture in Houston.“Whenever we approach planning in the city, it’s a heavy emphasis on carrots, not sticks,” Mr. Icken said.The move comes as downtowns in cities across the U.S. are seeing growing demand from developers. With or without tax breaks, the millennial generation has shown an affinity for urban-style living.Critics say a move to cities’ urban cores shows the Houston tax break isn’t needed. They say the city is merely distorting the market, contending that developers would likely just build units elsewhere. Mike Sullivan, currently Harris County’s Tax Assessor-Collector, was the lone “no” vote against the program when he served on the City Council in 2012. He still bristles at the notion that the city would push residential use downtown.Whenever we approach planning in the city, it’s a heavy emphasis on carrots, not sticks Andy Icken, City of Houston Chief Development Officer“I think the market …

13/01/2015

With computers, it is possible to make a bazillion iterations of any element of any design. A façade could have an infinite amount of color schemes, from checkerboards to zebra stripes. Thanks to Danish architects Kollision, this process comes alive at full scale at the Copenhagen headquarters of The Confederation of Danish Industry.In Urban Canvas, users can control the media architecture using a web app on to their mobile device. Using their fingers on the touch screen, they can "draw" colors on the criss-cross structure of the buildings street-facing facade. The town square fills with people of all ages experimenting with the system.The 43,000 square-foot canvas is accessible to multiple users at a time, making it a playful collaborative artwork that literally animates the night sky. The interactive façade was designed for Culture Night in October 2013. The urban interaction makes the building an object of desire for multiple people at one, fostering interaction between publics that might not otherwise meet. Unfortunately, the facade is not always controlled by passersby. It is normally programmed behind the scenes with patterns of color that dance across the building.

06/01/2015

George Monbiot: We’re plagued by joyless developments that destroy the essence of community: chances for young people to gather and play

09/07/2014

Check this out... http://www.streetartnews.net/2014/07/faith47-new-pieces-durban-south-africa.html

15/12/2013

Street Artist Paints Miniature Apartment Buildings Around the City – Enpundit http://t.co/Cq8dSsWShF via