It’s a hammock! A really big hammock! For lots of little people or just one very large person. With a $1,000 grant from the Awesome Foundation (how much do you think their employees love handing out business cards?), architect Hansy Better Barraza of Studio Luz supersized the standard hammock design, using steel tubes to carry the 8’ x 38’ wide woven net. Sited in downtown Boston in Fort Point Channel Park, formerly the site of the Big Dig. the project attempts to bring together members of the community, along with tourists and workers in the financial district. According The Big Hammock‘s website, “One may think of the hammock as a new suspended common ground where the individual’s weight, size and position are in concert with other bodies on the hammock. It is a social ground.”
Whether or not you find the social mission to be a bit overstated, it’s hard to deny the hammock’s allure. Bigness has it’s draw. Though it was recently taken down, I wouldn’t be surprised to see these become a mainstay in many large, urban parks much like those mosaic fountains in suburban lifestyle centers. Following a brief intermission, the architect expects that the Hammock will go on a road trip, being constructed in similar contexts in cities nationwide. Check out a pretty informative video here.
