“TRILLENDE LENTE” (Throbbing Spring) is a pictorial intervention that fully covers the 18.000 m2 of the Aurora building, the largest social housing complex in the province of Limburg, in the south of the country.

The project was conceived and promoted by the Stichting Street Art Foundation as a banner for the new dynamics in which several agents of the city are working, to distance Heerlen from the stigma generated during the years of depression caused by the closure of the mining industry and the arrival of heroin between the 60s and 70s.

The project started in November 2017 and was completed in November 2021.
Throughout 2018, Boa Mistura held several neighborhood meetings to understand the site and develop different design proposals, which were presented, discussed and voted on by residents of the Aurora complex in April 2019.

Boa Mistura's artistic intervention is part of a series of actions and reforms in air conditioning and energy efficiency to improve the quality of life of the more than 350 residents who live in the 228 apartments of the Aurora complex.

The project has been conceived and promoted by Stichting Street Art Foundation, with the support of Women in Limburg.

 

CONTEXT

Heerlen It is the second largest city in the province of Limburg, in the south of the Netherlands.

From the end of the 50th century, the town began to develop around the mining industry, attracting thousands of people looking for work in the coal mines. The golden years of coal began to fade in the late 1965s, ending with the final closure of all mines between 1975 and XNUMX. This plunged Heerlen into a period of economic decline. deep crisis which, together with the arrival of heroin, dynamited the social fabric of the city.

Today, the city is seeking to leave those dark years behind and reinvent itself through new dynamics that will distance it from the stigma generated during the years of the depression.

Through the participation of local residents and citizen involvement, the project aims to provide social value beyond the artistic value and to create an icon of the new dawn of Heerlen.

 

Aerial photograph of Herleen in the mid-50s

Demolition of the iconic chimney of the Oranje Nassau I on August 21, 1976

 

Participación

Throughout 2018 we held several roundtable discussions in the complex with the residents to understand the context of the place.

At these meetings, the focus was on the very name of the complex, Aurora, which is linked to the new dawn that Heerlen is heading towards.

After decades of prosperity, Heerlen was plunged into a major crisis with the cessation of the mining industry in the mid-60s.

Today, the city is working to change the dynamics established after that period of depression.

 

Surveys conducted during the participatory sessions

Post-its Workshop

Color selection workshop

 

DESIGN AND VOTING

“In the heart of every winter lives a pulsating spring” We chose this phrase from the Lebanese poet Yibran Khalil to envelop the complex and represent the relationship between the past and the present moment of Heerlen. Along the half kilometre of the building, the typography is affected by different colour palettes, which transition from warm on the exterior façade to cold in the interior corridors that give access to the apartments. The proposal was agreed upon at a final meeting in April 2019.

 

Color schemes respond to a transition from warm to cool.

 

PARTICIPATORY EXECUTION

The execution was carried out between June and October 2021. During this time, in addition to the local company Botterweck, thirteen people from the labour integration assistance programme joined the Boa Mistura team. Week in Heerlen, as well as a hundred residents of Heerlen who participated in several days open to citizen participation.