(Photo: Samantha Chang/TheImproper)

The 54-foot structure, which incorporates steel, glass, acrylic and mirrors, creates a halting silhouette against the backdrop of the elegant Manhattan skyline.  The 20-ton sculpture is currently on exhibit on the roof of the Met until November, by which time museum officials expect that over a half-million people will see it.

In describing Cloud City, Saraceno, an architect by training, says he wanted to present his vision of a utopian environment come to life. Visitors can enter and walk through the habitat-like, modular structures grouped in a nonlinear configuration that Saraceno described as “an international space station.”

The piece, which is anchored by a network of steel cables, is Saraceno’s vision of floating cities.

“You can have a feeling of weightlessness that’s a bit disorienting,” he says. “Cloud City is a vehicle for our imagination, ready to transport us beyond social, political and geographical states of mind.”

The installation will be on view at the Met through November 4.