Wild but comfortable, wittily tribal, disarmingly alive—all phrases describing the work of Martin Swinton. Martin’s creations regularly appear in MLH. There is little we can say about him that we haven’t already printed.

Martin’s captivating sentient appliances and AIs make him one of our favorite living home specialists. In fact, Martin Swinton Designs would prosper even if they never touched an architectural commission. Unlike his closest peers, who generally prefer to integrate AIs into their own whole-cloth designs, Martin is comfortable designing AIs for pre-existing spaces. It is the wit, the humor, the personality of the home that fascinates him.

Martin Swinton homes are cozy and peculiar. He openly views Beate Bosch’s work as cold and industrial, and he sees Kate Nei’s as overly traditional and too often formal or unnecessarily austere. Martin likes to weave stories and his designs incorporate uniquely evocative artifacts, like musical instruments and hand-made fabrics. It is not uncommon to find rare 19th and 20th Century Kurdish and Azerbajani Kilims adorning the floors and walls, highly individual and hand-made carpets, pillows, wallcovers, and tapestries that embody personalized stories and puzzles. Many of his inlays and themes reflect the same sort of quirky story-telling, using abstract imagery or ultra-stylized text.

Origen

Origen is this month’s Martin Swinton feature. It’s a bit of North Africa set within the plains east of Lubbock, Texas. A tribute to both Berber and Roman influences, its crude adobe exterior looks like sunbaked clay. In fact, though, it is constructed from interactive memory concrete. When so programmed, its "melting mouth" doors and windows can slowly change shape over the course of a day, as if eroding through centuries.