CINCINNATI — From the street, the Swing House is beautiful in its own right. The long thin, three-story structure shows its history.
What You Need To Know
- The Swing House in Cincinnati is a work of art and an Airbnb
- The building itself incorporates artwork and has a gallery in the basement
- The centerpiece is a functioning swing
- The place has grown in popularity for travelers during the pandemic
Its brick facade, now painted blue, prominent windows and ornate trim shows off the same 19th Century, Italianate style you’ll find throughout Cincinnati’s older neighborhoods.
Opening its door, however, unlocks something entirely unique, a home Mark de Jong calls his 30-year-old dream and the only place where he welcomes strangers to live for a day with his art.
He made buildings the center of his artwork. At any given point, they can be the medium, the canvas, the materials or any combination of the three.
The Swing House is all of the above. He started converting the property into what he calls an art house in 2017.
The house itself would become a work of art, but also be home to a gallery of sculptures made from pieces collected throughout the project.
De Jong shows off his gallery
“There’s a piece of wood that hides that gap between the baseboard and the floor,” de Jong said, showing how he spiraled that material into his work.
All of the sculptures in the gallery have a similar geometric style, either circles, arcs or rectangles, representing time and the body. Those same themes echo throughout the entire building.
The house itself is a long rectangle. De Jong took out the second- and third-floor ceilings, making the single-room bottom floor look massive and endless.
There is a functional purpose, however, for keeping the ceiling so high. The swing that gives the Swing House its name sits in the center of the room. A heavy, wooden rectangle, de Jong said its design reflects the dimensions of the building itself.
“The swing is a pendulum, a timepiece,” he said. “So it’s about passing.”
It also swings.
Long, thick ropes connect the piece to the ceiling allowing the swing to carry riders on a long low arc through the length of the building. De Jong said he designed the place around the arc so riders wouldn’t hit any of the furniture or other guests.
“If somebody’s working at the kitchen, because the arc gets higher there, you would miss their head entirely,” he said.
De Jong has other art houses throughout the city, like the Square House in Northside, which he sold, and the Circle House in Camp Washington, which he rents out, but this is the only one where strangers can spend the night.
“The art piece is actually activated by people staying here,” he said.
He opened Swing House as an Airbnb in 2018 and in the years since, de Jong said hundreds of people have come to stay.
“I see all kinds of different people,” he said.
In its first few years, de Jong said it seemed most guests were coming for the art and experience.
“Some people come here for two days and then they never leave the place,” he said.
Then last summer, he noticed a shift in demand. The COVID-19 pandemic created a different kind of traveler, looking for a different kind of lodging experience. The Swing House was a perfect fit.
“I think primarily because I’m a standalone house and I’m able to control the cleaning of it and also who comes in and the fact that nobody else can be here but the guests,” de Jong said.
He reopened the house on Airbnb in late May 2020.
“By June, I was beyond where I’d been prior to the pandemic and it’s been picking up since then to the point where I’m almost fully booked,” he said.
A survey by Hospitality Net shows travelers are more interested in smaller accommodations and short-term rentals and less interested in large hotels in the wake of the pandemic.
In de Jong’s case, his two-guest limit and rules against parties that may have once appealed to a small demographic, are now attracting all kinds of pandemic-conscious travelers.
Meanwhile, he said he’s been happy to build a new audience.
“In a way that was like a surprise,” he said. “Being a host was something I never thought I would enjoy but I do.”
He begins every visit to the Swing House with a personal tour, sharing the time and effort it took to create this place with floating furniture, impossibly high ceilings, and a whimsical centerpiece.
“It was a house that went through a very hard time,” de Jong said. “The city would have tore it down.”
As a long-time neighbor, he saw the potential within these walls. For 30 years, he wanted to find a way to incorporate a pendulum into a building design. Now, he’s got one any interested traveler can try out for an overnight stay.
