Otto Schulz

Otto Schulz (1882-1970) was a German born architect, designer and publisher, active for over 40 years in Gothenburg, Sweden. There, he established Boet (1920-1950), one of Sweden's most prestigious interior design shops, and published an influential design magazine of the same name.

Schulz attended several architectural schools in Germany, including the Technical University in Charlottenberg and the Architectural School in Berlin. Upon the completion of his studies, Shultz relocated to Gothenburg in 1907. While he was there, Schulz was in the employ of the furniture firm Selander & Sons for three years as a draftsman, after which he worked as an independent consultant on various construction and interior design projects for hotels and restaurants. Schulz also designed several notable ship interiors, a lucrative market in the harbor town of Gothenburg.

In 1917, Schulz fabricated an exceptional interior for Gothenburg's famed Bräutigams Patisserie, leading Adolf Nordic Borg, the head of Nordiska Kompaniet's design offices in Stockholm, to take note of the designer's talents. They became acquainted and together they established Boet in 1920. After their partnership dissolved in 1926, Schulz independently undertook to represent his designs not only within his innovative, fully furnished showroom at Boet, but also in a monthly periodical published from 1928 through 1930 featuring the philosophies of influential contemporary designers in addition to his own.

Schulz's designs were a mixture of modern and baroque styles. He incorporated traditional details like tassel feet and pulls into his works, which might at the same time function as modular pieces that could be converted or assembled in variant combinations to adapt to a particular interior. Often times, Schulz's concepts were so unique that he would have to patent them, as was the case with his characteristic decorative brass nail designs referred to as Bo- point. Schulz's inventive designs are well recorded, depicted among some 1,600 watercolors, sketches and drawings that are archived at the Rhösska Museum in Gothenburg.