Sidewalk Magic – Wind Magic
The SIDEWALK MAGIC project explores moments of surprise for passers-by and tourists on their way through the city through various interventions in public spaces. As the first trial implementation, the intervention WIND MAGIC was carried out in October 2025 in Hamburg city centre as part of the Hamburg funding programme "Verborgene Potenziale".
WIND MAGIC was planned and realised as a temporary installation on the end of the promenade at the Landungsbrücken, on the corner of Schaartorbrücke and Steinhöft, with a view towards the Elbphilharmonie. The location was deliberately chosen as a rather unremarkable and unwelcoming urban (non-)place in Hamburg city centre, which, through the intervention, temporarily provided impulses for reflection between nature, art and the urban environment in the sense of artistic acupuncture, highlighting the potential of this location. The project thus falls within the scope of the fifth thematic development goal of the Target Compass for Hamburg's city centre development: "Public spaces will be further developed as stages for city centre life."
The intervention used the typical breeze in Hamburg to draw the attention of passers-by to a random performative choreography of windmills, surprising them on their walk between the city centre and the harbour and encouraging them to pause and rest at this location.
The project was carried out as a pilot project within the Hamburg funding programme "Verborgene Potenziale - Gemeinschaftliche Entwicklung der Nutzungsvielfalt für eine lebendige und resiliente Hamburger Innenstadt" and was funded by the "Zukunftsfähige Innenstädte und Zentren" programme of the Federal Ministry of Housing, Urban Development and Building.
Programme: "Verborgene Potenziale - Gemeinschaftliche Entwicklung der Nutzungsvielfalt für eine lebendige und resiliente Hamburger Innenstadt"
Funding: "Zukunftsfähige Innenstädte und Zentren" des Bundesministeriums für Wohnen, Stadtentwicklung und Bauwesen
Responsibilities: concept, design, planning, public relations, realisation
Realisation: 10/2025
Graphic: studio other types
Photo Credits: Tobias Bärmann
