Beautiful contradictions create beautiful experiences
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A MODERN INTERPRETATION OF A 1950’S DESIGN CLASSIC.
The original Pira shelf designed in 1954 was as contradictory as the man who conceived it. Olle Pira (1927-2018) was a traditional master cabinet-maker who crafted cherry, maple and matured oak with age-old skills. Yet he won a place at the renowned Konstfack school of art, craft and design, the birthplace of concepts ahead of their times. And became the first Swede to win a gold medal at the Triennale in Milan in 1952.
A shelf should enhance spaces and abolve all it should store posessions. A personal companion to human nature.
Anna von Schewen
Article Images
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Pira G2 in black grey, floor-ceiling mounted. Height 240 cm. Width 90 + 90 cm. Cabinets and bookends in walnut.
Pira G2 in white, wall mounted. Height 205 cm. Width 90 + 90 cm. Cabinets and bookends in white oak.
VINTAGE GENIUS, YET IN A NEW MINDSET.
It’s the 2020’s, technology and materials have evolved but also people’s habits and needs. Architect Anna von Schewen and industrial designer Björn Dahlström took on the challenge to let the Pira respond. In all senses.
ELEGANTLY DELICATE, YET BRUTALLY ROBUST.
Pira G2 is a metallic work of art that creates a centre-piece wherever it stands. Yet each shelf carries up to 50 kg, thanks to its sheet-steel construction with an integral ridge. Or indeed, 350 kg in each section. Enough for life’s treasures. Or necessities. Or both.
LIKE A SWISS WATCH, AND A TOWER CRANE.
Pira G2 is the sum of many parts. An interlocked series of joints, poles, flats and triangles, each no longer than a metre yet extendable to reach most ceilings from all floors. With machined tolerances down to 0.02mm, yet all as rugged as the machines that cut them.
MODULAR, YET JOINTLESS.
Modular, yet assembled it seems to have been built as one. As a jointless centrepiece with no joints, beginnings and ends.
UPHOLDING, YET MELLOWING.
Pira G2’s metalwork reassures. Yet its walnut and white oak bookends and cabinets pacify. A technical feat but also a beautiful one. Two schools in one space. The welcoming and the working.
CONTRADICTORY, YET CONSUMMATE.
Thanks to the efforts of some of Sweden’s most bright and wayward minds, it’s a masterpiece, complex and sophisticated. But capable of creating calm and wellbeing wherever it lives.
Our World
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Architect Anna von Schewen
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Industrial designer Björn Dahlström
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Architect Olle Pira in his studio in the 1960’s.
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Organiser in oak.
DESIGN
Architect Anna von Schewen and industrial designer Björn Dahlström, from the 1954 classic Pira by Olle Pira.
MATERIALS
Poles made of extruded aluminium in black grey or white. Shelves of sheet steel, with an integral ridge. Cabinets, organisers in walnut or white oak.
MAX WEIGHT
50 kg/shelf, 350 kg/section.
Floor-ceiling or wall mounted.
Pira G2 meets the needs of today, yet strives to retain the brilliance of the 50’s classic. Its relevance salutes the past.
Björn Dahlström
Pira G2
A most beautiful contradiction.
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