BWU Alum Swinton Featured in From BWUNN, by Dante Kim. Artificially intelligent homes and BWU go way back. IT grads of all stripes live in AI homes or create them for others. These days, it has become de riguer for the world’s rich and famous to live in a home that’s designed to care not only for itself but for the occupants as well. AI homes are butlers, maids, and chefs—even personal confidants and, yes, friends. Over 50 years back, BWU formed one of the first departments focusing on architectural artificial intelligences. This department, currently chaired by Dr. Arthur Hinsdale, consistently turns out top names in the field, people who have gone on to fame and fortune designing and constructing the most fabulous personal abodes in the world. Case in point: Martin Swinton (M.S. Architectural Artificial Intelligence, 2123). This month’s Metropolitan Living Homes features him in its cover story. Martin Swinton was born and raised in New York City, which he says contributes to his “absolute hatred of all things synthetic.” Swinton himself is as stylish as the homes that he designs. Nattily dressed in hemp and linen, he seems to have a permanent five o’ clock shadow. The same sensibility runs throughout Swinton’s work. “If you want a place with excellent hygiene and a chrome heart, get a Bosch. That will get you out of bed and straight to work in the morning.” Swinton’s own work, by contrast, has a much more organic feel. “I like to work with natural materials in my designs,” he offers. “Hardwoods, fieldstones, cloth, animals. Beate will build you a dog perfectly suited to you. I’d make you buy a live dog and let the house bring you into harmony with this unpredictable, living presence.” Swinton has made his name by being willing to work with existing structures, tailoring his AIs to the needs of the original building. “It’s a different way of seeing things. Whereas many designers prefer to start with a tabula rasa, I like working with things as they already are. “What’s the point in gutting a perfectly good home? Some designers will tell you that it’s important to get the clutter out of the way before you start. To me that clutter is exactly what you want to keep. It’s silly to toss all that history out when instead you can build on it, use it as the basis of your work. “A home should be an extension of the people who live in it, not the other way around. As a designer, the first thing I do before I set to work is watch the home’s residents, observing their patterns, and determining how best to fit their home’s personality to their needs. “Winston Churchill once said, ‘We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.’ I’m a firm believer in that credo. Those words are more true today than ever before.”