Designers turned a Washington, DC, museum into a giant ball pit — and it looks like the most surreal beach you've ever seen

Since July, people have been swimming in a pool of nearly 1 million translucent plastic balls in the middle of the National Building Museum in Washington, DC.

The museum collaborated with Brooklyn-based design studio Snarkitecture to build its largest-ever public installation.

Ever since it opened its doors in July, the Beach has been drawing hordes of people to dive into this one-of-a-kind interactive architectural marvel. 

Hundreds of photos have already flooded Twitter on #TheBeachDC:

Below are some of the highlights from a video explaining how the Beach came into being. The video is part of the Creators Project, a series of videos showing the creative process behind works of art.  

Snarkitecture designers imagined turning the museum's atrium into a ball pit. 

The Beach came into being after nearly 160 funders donated more than $12,000 in a crowdsourcing campaign on Indiegogo.

The idea was to make one big statement within a space and let it speak for itself. The result: a no-frills massive ball pit bathed in white.

The structure was so massive that the head carpenter said he was "apprehensive" in the beginning: 1,500 boxes full of balls were waiting to be emptied.They finally put together a 5,000-square-foot "shoreline" dotted with beach chairs and umbrellas — all facing an empty floor that would be filled with balls. 

The Snarkitecture team wanted to use a material that you wouldn't expect in an architectural context. Plastic balls turned out to be a perfect fit — and really pulled in the crowds.

Watch the video in which Snarkitecture founders Daniel Arsham and Alex Mustonen explain how they turned the museum's Great Hall into a monochromatic beach experience. 

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