Lennart Notman studied at Nyckelviksskolan 1969 to 1971 and interior architecture and furniture design at Konstfack University of Art, Crafts and Design from 1973 to 1978.
In 1977, Notman founded an architectural studio called Aa-gruppen (Architect assistents group) together with Lasse Pettersson, Christer Carlsson and Thomas Ekdahl, with whom he had studied at Nyckelviksskolan. Their first product was a copper armature with a pendant for the church in the Stockholm suburb Högdalen. Aa-gruppen also designed a library on Gotland. The studio later changed its name to SKALA Arkitekter. Most of the studio's works are interior architectural projects, including libraries, museum, hospitals, and exhibitions all around Sweden.
At the Stockholm Furniture Fair in 1982 the SKALA studio was a part of the Unga Möbelformgivare (eng. Young Furniture Design exhibition) where the company Swedese became interested in one of the chair models. The chair was later added with a sofa and a table named FUGA that was awarded the Furniture of the Year in 1983.
The collaboration with Swedese resulted in several furniture including BALLAD (1987), KORNETT (1991), CORDA and ACCORD (1997). BALLAD was the recipient of the Excellent Swedish Design and KORNETT, the Furniture of the Year Award.
Another well known piece by SKALA Arkitekter is the lighting series SIROCCO for Aspegt which was awarded the Excellent Swedish Design, and the shelf systems FRONT, SLOOP, and ELL for Karl Andersson & Söner (2005-2021).
