String Furniture 🇸🇪 Swedish Design

The Swedish company String Furniture was born out of a competition launched by the publisher Bonnier in 1949: to design a simple, inexpensive and easy-to-assemble modular bookcase system to facilitate the sale of books.

Nisse and Kajsa Strinning took up the challenge and invented the ingenious String® system, which quickly became a fixture in Swedish homes in the 1950s

The String shelving system won several design awards, including the prestigious gold medal at the Milan Triennale, and its success soon spread beyond national borders, going so far as to equip the UN offices in New York and becoming the best-selling Scandinavian furniture in Germany. Then, with the 1980s and the general decline of Scandinavian design worldwide, String shelving production dwindled to almost anecdotal proportions.

The revival of String Furniture in 2004 coincided with the return to favor of Scandinavian design in general and the birth of Scandinavia Design, which became the first retailer to reintroduce String shelving in France.

Since then, the String range has been greatly expanded, with the addition of new finishes, dimensions and modules.

In 2005, shortly before his death, Nisse Strinning designed String Pocket, a new product that was an immediate success. In 2014, Anna von Schewen and Björn Dahlström extended her work with the String Works shelving and desk system. In 2019, Gabriella Lenke and Mattias Ståhlbom developed the Museum collection, to coincide with the renovation of Stockholm's National Museum. In 2023, the Pira system was modernized and relaunched.

Alongside this editorial work, working practices and methods were carefully reviewed to put sustainability and the environment at the heart of the company. The environment, quality and social responsibility have become central concepts and, in many cases, play a crucial role in decision-making processes such as the search for suppliers or the sourcing of materials.

Scandinavia Design remains one of Europe's leading String retailers. Our extensive stock enables us to deliver most compositions very quickly. Please do not hesitate to contact us to help you in your exploration.

1949 Nisse and Kajsa Strinning's entry in the Bonnier shelving competition selected as the overall winner from 194 entries
1952 String® shelves ordered to decorate new UN headquarters in NYC
1953 Launch of String® Plex
1954 String® wins gold medal at Milan Triennale
1955 String® takes part in the H55 exhibition in Helsingborg. The exhibition marked the beginning of the modern, functional Swedish design movement
1961 Several plagiarists are sued; the Swedish Supreme Court judges rule in String's favor and the design is patented
1979 String® is part of the permanent collection of the Swedish National Museum
1999 Nisse Strinning wins the Classic Award and the Excellent Swedish Design Award
2004 String Furniture AB is founded with a focus on the environment, quality and social responsibility. String® system is launched
2005 Launch of String® Pocket and first presentation at Malmö's Form and Design Centre
2009 String® has been awarded the title of applied art in accordance with copyright law
2010 Design expert and journalist Rebecka Tarschy publishes her book String Pocket
2014 The collaboration with Anna von Schewen and Björn Dahlström has resulted in a completely new office furniture concept: String Works
2016 String Works remporte le German Design Award
2017 String® shelving system featured on Sweden Post stamp
2018 Launch of a new range of galvanized products for outdoor use, called String® Outdoor
2019 String® celebrates its 70th anniversary and asks Mats Theselius to design a limited edition String® Pocket. The shelves are made of glass, and the uprights have blue-green highlights to match the edges of the glass shelves. The shelf will be produced in 2019 units
2019 The Swedish National Museum reopens after several years of renovation. Gabriella Lenke and Mattias Ståhlbom of TAF Architecture design the Museum NM&.045 console for the museum's bust collection, and String Furniture produces it. The Museum collection is born and joins the String Furniture product line
2020 String Furniture wins "Furniture Supplier of the Year" awar
2020 Winner in the Long Life Design Award category - The Good Design Award is the largest design competition in Asia. Created in 1957, it celebrates the values and principles of Japanese design, which aims to enrich the lives of individuals, businesses and society as a whole

professional request

Scandinavia Design has successfully supplied a multitude of products for a large number of projects, both public and private. These include universities, shops, hotels, restaurants, offices, museums, flats, station waiting rooms,
cruise ships and much more.

We are able to deliver furniture, lighting, fabrics, carpets, decorative elements and other accessories to almost any part of the world.

You can contact our sales department, specifying the products concerned (finish and quantity) and your exact delivery address so that we can give you the best possible response.

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