Tokujin Yoshioka has suspended 17,700 acrylic rods in the lobby of a skyscraper in Downtown Houston, creating a huge sculpture designed to resemble a cloud.

The Japanese designer's Prismatic Cloud sculpture stretches across the roof of the One Allen Center's 45 square-metre lobby.

Using 3,540 barely-visible cables, the 17,700 colourless rods are hung from the roof and stacked together in a formation that – from a distance – is designed to resemble a cloud.

Each of the rods is prism-shaped, to ensure they catch and reflect light during the day.

"As public art, I created a sculptural work made of light which would be a symbol of the building," Yoshioka told Dezeen.

"Prismatic Cloud is a sculptural work made of light, transcending concepts of shape by giving a figure to all human senses utilising immaterial elements," he continued.

The Allen Center, which is made up of three buildings, is currently undergoing a $48.5 million transformation to turn it into a cultural hub.

The works began in June 2016 and included the renovation of the nine-metre-high lobby space at One Allen Center, where Yoshioka's sculpture is located.

The 452 feet-tall skyscraper is located in Houston's downtown district – an area hit badly by Hurricane Harvey in August 2017.

In the wake of the natural disaster, Houston launched a 20-year plan to overhaul its downtown district, after experts blamed Texas city's urban design for the hurricane's catastrophic effects.

Based in Tokyo, Yoshioka has become known for creating poetic and experimental works that use light as a main component.

This is the latest in a series of cloud-like works created by the designer, which include an exhibition design made up of more than two million translucent straws at the Saga Prefectural Art Museum in Japan, and a crinkled paper sofa for Moroso.