Nola took its current shape in the 1980 when Agneta Stake took over the company. She initiated an intensive audit to meet the demands of a new era that demanded better products for the public outdoor environment. With great community involvement, passion and sensitivity towards the prominent architects and urban planners of the time, she sculpted a company that would become a guide for how the urban environment could appear and function. Before then, it was unusual for urban space products to bear the hallmarks of a designer or architect. However, there was a budding interest among architects to develop unique and specially designed furniture for the public environment, which Nola was able to realise.
Together with pioneering architect firms like BSK, White, the landscape architect, Ulf Nordfjell and Stockholm city landscape designer, Carl Fredrik Wachmeister, Nola entered a new era, creating pieces for towns and cities across Sweden. New pieces were created for Kungsträgården in Stockholm, Arlanda airport, new furniture for Sergels torg and Kungsgatan in Stockholm and town centres in Motala and Söderhamn. Through these new projects, Nola brought new materials like cast iron and terrazzo into public space architecture and a new way to experience the design of urban spaces.
Creative collaboration continues to be a cornerstone of Nola’s design ethos and its impact on urban planning. Today Nola works with many or Sweden’s most recognisable designers and architects and has garnered many awards along the way. Production of our range is undertaken exclusively in Sweden with sustainability and quality foremost. We also represent selected international brands in the Swedish market including Bellitalia and its premium-quality terrazzo products.
In 2019 Nola recruited Henrik Edlund as its CEO who, together with Stake and her family, is bringing the company into a new phase, focusing heavily on sustainable production and technical innovation.