Umbrellas are often considered ‘waste’ once they’re broken. But a US design firm challenged that preconception with a beautiful dome shaped structure. Even better, it floats!

We’ve all seen them lying around: broken umbrellas. Sad and useless, they are discarded and ignored until someone cleans them up.

New York based SLO architecture decided to change all that. Here’s what they came up with: a giant dome, built from 450 umbrellas that have had their fabric removed. The skeletons add an ethereal, spidery look to the spherical structure. The whole thing rests on a ring of 128 two-litre PET bottles, so the dome floats.

A previous dome, built in a similar fashion in 2011, drifted off course – onto a prison island – and was destroyed by authorities. The current umbrella dome will be visible in the waters off the north end of Manhattan until the end of the summer. Hopefully this dome will stay out of bad weather…

See more here.