A museum in America has opened a 10,000 square foot ball pit to the general public and adults are going crazy for it, acting like they’re children again.

The National Building Museum in Washington D.C. is hosting an installation called “The Beach”, that’s literally a hip design firm’s take on everyone’s favourite juvenile play thing.

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But unlike the ball pit you spent your youth frolicking in, these balls are all clear and are set against the museum’s stunning mostly white back drop.

Reviews of the installation have been overwhelmingly positive and the brilliant photography coming from inside the museum shows hundreds of fully grown humans embracing the exuberance of their former selves in public. 

One review said the afternoon they had in the giant pit of nostalgia was “dangerously fun”.

Brooklyn design house Snarkitecture told Travel + Leisure the project is their largest work yet and comes from years researching “territory between art and architecture and … transformation of familiar into the extraordinary”.

Washingtonians get to live the nostalgia thanks to a crowdfunding campaign that successfully funded $12,000 USD in under one month.

Every donor to the campaign was rewarded by having their names on a ball – only problem is there is an estimated one million of them to trawl through in order to locate your name.

It’s not the first time this kind of childhood concept has caused a buzz in the grown up world.

Last year a London studio apartment was converted into a giant ball pit where office workers were invited to frolic in their lunch break.

“The Beach” ball pit installation will end on September 7.

Lead photo: @noahkalina/Twitter