A Hammock for Lovers

Have you ever tried to get cozy in a hammock? And I don’t mean cozy as in “relaxing alone time amid the gentle summer breezes of a lazy afternoon,” but rather in the, ahem, biblical sense. The suspension mechanics of your average hammock are inadequate in this capacity to say the least, with failure and abandonment being a best-case scenario, and exposure to the indignities of what I like to call the “Homer Simpson maneuver” (a full 180 and mortifying expulsion to the ground) the worst-case. [via Yanko Design]

Thankfully, young designer Victor Alemán seems to have had his share of amorous hammock-related mishaps (though who would have thunk it—he’s only 23). For surely only that kind of experience can foreground the inspiration for “Mua,” his doubly-suspended, wicker-wrapped steel, crimson-upholstered swing for lovers. This re-invention of the hammock boasts a perspicacious functionality while wearing an appealing aesthetic to boot. Not only does “the organic shape invoke the idea of two people intertwined,” but from the right perspective, the swing “looks like a giant heart-shaped pendant,” complete with an elegant chain, gracefully arching up into the bowers above.

But what of young Mr. Alemán, budding designer of Mexican extraction? And why invite us to dream of summer at this particular moment, with the Winter Solstice nary a day away? Perhaps a clue can be found in his previous work—the whimsically circular Loopita Bonita Sofa and the Ayurvedic Ohm Transformable Bed, both of which are singular and unprecedented, and likewise suggest that Alemán isn’t too concerned with what’s seasonally appropriate (besides, he lives in the sunny south, where hammock indulgence is a daily occurrence). So perhaps all that remains is some investigation into the piece’s enigmatic moniker. Is it an acronym? If so, some legitimate contenders would include “make-up artist,” “museum of underwater archeology,” and “manipulation under anesthesia,” each of which seems unlikely. How about “movimiento uniformemente acelerado?” Meaning something like “uniformly accelerating movement,” this phrase is potentially apropos, yet far too clinical and scientific sounding to suit Mua. The best interpretation, for my money, is the onomatopoetic one: “mua” in Spanish stands for the sound of smacking lips—Alemán’s Mua certainly encourages this pleasantly perennial pastime