Ask any Dutch person what Eindhoven is famous for, and there is a good chance you will hear the terms “city of light’” and “technical capital” in their answers. But… an important part of Eindhoven’s Urban Skin that is less well-known is the vibrant student life. There are no less than 35.5 thousand students in the inner city every week, of which 17.5 thousand have also found somewhere to live. It’s quite remarkable that 15% of Eindhoven residents are students but the city itself is not known as a student city. Student society SSRE wants to change this with this project!

SSRE GLOWcie approached local students to put Eindhoven in the spotlight. All throughout Eindhoven, beating hearts are displayed. Each heart indicates the location of a student house. The presence of these hearts in such large numbers hopefully gives an impression of how important the students are to the city and how important Eindhoven is to them. All these beating hearts come together in one artwork in the headquarters of the SSRE student association.

Many ‘prototype’ hearts were made. The team faced challenges revolving around mass production, budget, and finding suitable electronics that would last the whole duration of GLOW. In the end, all the hearts are equipped with a programmable microcomputer, that uses a clock-controlled programme to make the hearts shine, all GLOW long! For all other problems the students encountered during the project, there were always professionals they could turn to for help.

The student association SSRE has created the GLOW committee especially for GLOW. A group of thirteen students came together, each of them a volunteer and enthusiastic to contribute to the GLOW project. They also see the importance of adding value to Eindhoven. Although they are all very different, they have learned from each other during this project and have discovered that they are all willing to work hard on something inspiring and cool. Together they have bundled a huge amount of knowledge and skills to realize the project. Some members of the commission were involved in the Har Hollands project last year which gave them prior knowledge about a collaboration with GLOW. This specific project was realised in collaboration with the student team IGNITE. All in all, we can say that the students are really enthusiastic. And this is reflected in the facades of so many student houses in the city. Heart-warming!

The project on the GLOW webpage
https://gloweindhoven.nl/en/project/studentenhart/

Aftermovie of the project, shot by Student Team Ignite
https://youtu.be/3GzgQf5I3Jw?si=I-t6eun5pjXBLmrD