This immersive installation in Brooklyn's Greenpoint, created by designer and engineer Nassia Inglessis, features a canopy that appears to magically move up and down as visitors tread underneath.

Urban Imprint comprises a floor and ceiling that change shape in response to movement, and was created by the Greek designer's firm Studio INI in response to a brief from MINI-backed A/D/O to explore the notion of personal identities in cities.

Unveiled today for this year's NYCxDesign week, the design is intended to invert the typical relationship between people and the urban environment. Instead of people reacting to built forms, the structure adapts to them.
"I wanted to create a space where your every step, your every imprint is amplified," Inglessis told Dezeen. "I wanted to create an enclosed space where you get immersed so that came to being a ceiling and a floor."
To create the morphing effect, Inglessis has connected the floor and the ceiling with a pulley system, comprising 400 chords that are hidden behind a mirrored screen at the back of the structure. As visitors step on the platform, it dips down and triggers the pulleys to tighten and lift the roof into a dome shape.
Inglessis likens the system to a musical instrument. "It's like a large harp," she said.

The thicknesses of the chords are varied so that the protrusion in the ceiling exaggerates the size of the imprint in the floor.
"The ratio of the different radii of the differe...