Design studios Softlab and Moment Factory have created seven immersive installations for the 350-metre-high Edge NYC skyscraper viewpoint at Hudson Yards, including a massive kaleidoscope and a series of pulsating globes.
Edge NYC, which is the highest indoor-outdoor sky deck in the Western Hemisphere, is set on the 100th floor of Kohn Pedersen Fox's 30 Hudson Yards skyscraper.
The recently opened, immersive installations are intended to create an additional experience to its bird's-eye view of Manhattan. Similar to ones designed by art collective TeamLab, the artworks were created to be walked through and experienced in person.
Among the first installation in the visitor route is Pulse, which was designed by Softlab and features 450 pulsating globes across a number of rooms that shift in colour as visitors walk past them.
"Pulse is really about capturing the energy of New York City," Softlab director Michael Szivos told Dezeen.
"The 450 globes represent the city as a world within worlds, while the shifting gradients and interactive choreography reflect how individual actions contribute to the collective energy of the city."
The studio hoped that the installation would evoke "a sense of curiosity" and aimed for it to change with each visit.
"The colour palette is derived from Edge's brand colours, which are inspired by the changing colours of the sky throughout the day – from midday to sunset and twilight," Szivos said.
"We organised these into warm and cool gradients that continuously shift and transition, allowing the installation to move between contrasting atmospheres through generative behaviours, so the experience is never exactly the same twice."
Also among the installations is Kaleidoscope, a series of rooms that includes a main artwork that Edge NYC says is "New York's largest kaleidoscope" and was designed by Moment Factory.
"The goal was to design an interior experience that acts as a mirror to the city's dynamic nature," Moment Factory creative director Patrick Bisson told Dezeen.
"By treating the space as a prism that refracts New York's radiant energy, we provide a distinct sensory engagement that complements the outdoor sky deck before visitors even step outside."
The largest kaleidoscope lets visitors step inside it to be surrounded by shifting, colourful prisms in changing patterns.
"The installation was designed to function as a multifaceted prismatic space, integrating digital media with highly reflective architectural surfaces," Bisson said.
"This approach captures the physical movement of the visitors, blending their reflections directly into the content," he continued.
"The result is a complex matrix of shifting geometry and light, creating a multiplicity of reflections that ensures an infinite, constantly evolving spatial experience."
As well as the main kaleidoscope, Moment Factory also created numerous smaller kaleidoscopes, including one featuring street photography of New York City.
"The smaller kaleidoscope is designed as an intimate moment for guests to connect directly with the fabric of the city," Bisson said.
"We curated a street photography aesthetic that highlights urban textures and architectural geometry, interspersed with iconic landmarks."
The immersive installations also include Reflections, a kinetic sculpture made from 200 mirrored surfaces, and Crystal Cave, a 25-foot canopy of giant crystals, among others.
While most of the installations are located on the same floor as the Edge NYC viewpoint itself, there is also Skyrise, a "cinematic elevator experience" and Prism, an entryway experience that shows shifting views of New York.
The overall designs were all inspired by Edge itself, according to experience agency Journey, which oversaw the strategy for the project.
"We examined what already made Edge NYC so distinctive: its angular and triangular architecture, its use of glass and light, and its powerful vantage point to offer visitors new perspectives of New York City – both physically and mentally," said Journey strategy and creative lead Olivia Reid.
"From this foundation – and the visual language of triangles and prismatic energy – the strategic process enabled us to set and safeguard the experiential vision."
The Edge also features the newly revamped restaurant Peak, while other Hudson Yards attractions include Heatherwick Studio's Vessel and The Shed venue, which features a telescoping roof.
The photography is courtesy of Edge NYC.