Swedish furniture adjusts to suit the flexible office

When Bjorn Dahlström and Anna von Schewen of String Furniture began working on a new collection of home office furniture, they never imagined that the world would join them in working from home. Their goal, however, remained the same: create a collection around its modular shelves. Designed in 1949, this piece of furniture has conquered countless Swedish and international homes thanks to its simplicity, ergonomics and durability. In 2005, it was relaunched on the market, confirming its iconic status. According to Designboom , the designers began their journey by speaking to doctors, who convinced them that changing positions throughout the day was crucial to avoiding a wide range of health problems. Typically, desks are bulky and very technical. Their aesthetic is very business-like and they do not readily fit into a home environment or offer comfort to the user. That is why they decided to design a table and not a desk.

To achieve this, the designers visited rope furniture suppliers and asked for the smallest table adjustment mechanism available. They hid the mechanism along the periscope, which allows the table top to move between 71.5 cm and 118 cm. on a third leg. His goal was to mimic the trestles that many workers use as desks. The end result is that the sit-stand desk integrates as seamlessly into a home environment as it does into a work environment. The second task was to design a shelf. Unlike the traditional rope model, they wanted this one to be freestanding and able to be assembled without a wall. First, they designed a movable divider, a metal frame filled with a felt panel, in order to absorb the noises of people talking around the coffee machine or children playing nearby. The outside of the panel has two wire screens where different containers can be hung. The duo also created filing and storage cabinets on wheels, with handles that are an explicit reference to the original rope shelf design. These wheels make them the perfect choice for “flexible offices,” where workers have to move their stuff around. a different place every day. The top includes two shallow areas for storing pencils, erasers and other stationery so they don't fall to the floor when the storage unit is moved.