Before delving further into the intricacies of designer Dima Loginoff’s “anatomy inspired” and rad Bone Lounge, perhaps we should first pose a fundamental question: how “bone-like” is it? [via the Design Blog]

Bone Lounge. Designed by Dima Loginoff.

For further insight on this question I invited my chocolate Labrador Retriever to explore its spiraled contours and she replied that – the ostensibly formidable supply of marrow having long since been sucked away – it was of no interest to her. But beyond this conspicuous absence of protein, why has Loginoff chosen this odd moniker for her conversation piece come lounger? After all, it really looks more like an elongated kidney bean to me… ah, perhaps the “hollow interior, porous surface, and naturalistic symmetry” have something to do with it.

In any case, the name does roll off the tongue. All speculation aside, Loginoff’s sofa certainly does its part to introduce new idioms into the language of design. With conceptual forebears (or contemporaries) like the Party Lounge, the Do Chair, and the Shift Sofa, the Bone lounge plays on our familiar conceptions of the function of furniture, notably challenging our notion of how chairs and couches should bring people together (or apart). As one critic has said, the sofa creates “a great distance between the two sitting people.” This is, of course, intentional, and-just like Bjorn Meir’s Shift and Frederick Kiesler’s classic Party Lounge, the larger point. Just so, Loginoff’s piece puts her within the ranks of designers whose work constantly plays with the distinction between art and furniture: is it a striking visual representation of something “sofa-esque”? Indeed. Is it appropriate for my living room? (Probably not, my lab might become trapped inside). Is it appropriate for yours?

Only you can answer, of course. If you’re on the cutting edge of design trends, or if you’ve a space large enough to allow the 360 degree circumspection it deserves, or even if you have an outsized fondness for Mel Brooks’ classic High Anxiety, Loginoff’s psychedellic brain teaser just might stimulate your grey matter.