Jonas Bohlin graduated as a construction engineer before he began his studies in interior architecture and furniture design at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm. For his graduation project in 1981 Bohlin designed the chair Concrete made of concrete and corrugated steel tubes later presented at the Stockholm furniture fair and spotted by by the company Källemo.
With both Concrete and the cabinet Slottsbacken (1987), Bohlin was focusing on the intellectual concept and artistic expression rather than the functionality of the furniture, and they were both made in limited editions. Concrete was among other awards, rewarded the Excellent the Swedish Design Award.
In 1983 Bohlin founded his own design studio and in 1985 he, and a group of other designers launched a Stockholm based art and design gallery called Stockholm Mobile. During the 1990’s Bohlin continued to design furniture for the Swedish manufacturer Källemo, such as the Concave lounge chair (1983), the Point chair (1985) and the Triptyk table (1988).
In 1997 he made the collection Liv that consisted of furniture, lightings, textiles and glass. The idea of the project Bohlin got when he, together with 53 friends rowed from Stockholm to Paris. For Svensk Form, the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design, Bohlin designed the furnishings for their new board room and library at Skeppsholmen in 2000 and in 2004 Bohlin was appointed to design the interior architecture for the Swedish ambassador´s residence in Pretoria, South Africa.
Later Bohlin has successfully collaborated with the Lighting company Örsjö and the bentwood manufacturer Gemla.
Bohlin became a lecturer at Beckmans College of Design in 1988 and was one of the founders of the schools Design BA-course in 1992 and from 2004 to 2009 he was appointed professor in furniture design at Konstfack. Bohlin has been president of the Association of Sweden’s Interior Architects (SIR) and a chairman of the Academy of Interior Architects. In 1997 he became a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Since the 1980’s Bohlin has created several interiors for restaurants in Stockholm, such as Rolfs Kök, Sturehof and Riche.
Bohlin has received several awards, such as the George Jensen prize in 1988 and the Prize Eugen Medal in 2014. In 2021 Bohlin created the interior design for the restaurant Aira in Djurgården for which he received the Guldstolen Award by Architects Sweden.
