Sydney has a bounty of beautiful beaches, envied and admired the world over. This summer however, the city will have play host to a new sort of beach – designed by Daniel Arsham and Alex Mustonen of Snarkitecture.

Based in Brooklyn, the design duo’s projects straddle art and architecture, creating a very fluid dialogue between both practices. The Beach – an ocean of over 1,000,000 recyclable, antimicrobial plastic balls, and the biggest ball pit in the Southern Hemisphere – first appeared in 2015 as a commission for the National Building Museum in Washington D.C., and is now touring the globe. The fully immersive, interactive installation uses a host of everyday materials, including scaffolding, paneling, and mirrors to create an enclosure with a sloped floor that leads to a bobbing white sea of plastic white.

Away from the threat of sharks, seaweed, salt, and and the scorching sun – Snarkitecture’s beach is a softer version of the quintessential Australian summer experience, but will be surely be equally as joyous and memorable.

The Beach will be at the Cutaway at Barangaroo Reserve from 7 – 29 January, 2017. 

The full program for the Sydney Festival 2017 is available here.