Designer · Denmark · 1905–1996
Piet Hein
Piet Hein (1905–1996) – Danish scientist, “Grooks” author and designer who created the superellipse used in Superellipse tables made by Fritz Hansen from 1968.
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About the designer
- Lifetime
- 1905–1996
- Country
- Denmark
Piet Hein was born on 16 December 1905 in Copenhagen. He studied at the Institute of Theoretical Physics at the University of Copenhagen, later the Niels Bohr Institute, and at the Technical University of Denmark. He became widely known for his short poems, “Grooks”, published under the pseudonym Kumbel Kumbell; the first appeared in the daily newspaper “Politiken” after April 1940. In 1972, he received an honorary doctorate from Yale University.
In design history, Hein is known as the creator of the superellipse – a form he first used in urban planning and later in furniture design. The superellipse formed the basis of his winning design for the Sergels Torg roundabout in central Stockholm. He transferred the same shape to tabletops: Superellipse tables, developed in collaboration with the Swedish designer Bruno Mathsson, have been produced by Fritz Hansen since 1968. In a later period, the tables were also manufactured by the Swedish company Mathsson International. The design thus brings together the work of a Danish author with the expertise of a Swedish furniture designer and two manufacturers from both countries.
The Superellipse table is held in the collection of Nationalmuseum in Stockholm. Piet Hein died on 17 April 1996 on Funen.
Key designs
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Superellipse table
with Bruno Mathsson; in the collection of Nationalmuseum in Stockholm
