Engaging or painful design?

I stumbled across a site called Space Collective that features some wild topics and conversations as well asIndex of recent posts on Space Collective an innovative interface.

Visitors are given the option of viewing stories in a simple list format, sorted by headlines on the left and images and author name and avatar on the right. They're also given the option of viewing stories via a panel, with each story segmented into identical panels about the size of a deck of cards, stacked 5 wide and 10 deep.

Here's where it gets interesting. Clicking on a panel opens up story screen but through some Ajax-like call creates a dynamic story view that keeps the visitor on the same page. In the story view, the main element  takes up the width of three panels; clicking to close the story view returns you to the full panel page.

I'm intrigued by the concept, and wonder about the possibilities as they relate to Story view on dynamically created page on Space Collectivea site built simply around the concept of pure serendipity (this wouldn't work for a new site, where hierarchy is important). I'm also intrigued by Space Collective's use of an orange-tagged "Wild Card," which pulls in a random RSS feed from "related sources." (You can see an example in the upper right of the index-page screen grab).

A co-worker thinks it's poor UI because it's free form, has no real center of gravity and doesn't offer enough to keep a person coming back. I see his points, particularly if we were talking about a general information site, but I'm intrigued nonetheless. I see it as kind of like Current TV, which is freeform at its core.

I'll try visiting daily for a week to see if I get tired of the concept and whether the usability -- or lack thereof -- becomes an attraction or a distraction.

What do you think?