Mid-Century Superellips Dining Table by Piet Hein; Bruno Mathsson for Fritz Hansen

Bruno Mathsson was born in 1907 in Värnamo, Sweden. His father, Karl, was a fourth-generation master cabinetmaker, so Bruno was exposed early on to the possibilities of new wood technologies. A self-taught designer and architect, Mathsson was inspired by the functionalist movement, and, expanding on his family trade, spent much of the 1920s and 1930s studying the functional possibilities of wood.

Mathsson’s furniture designs experimented with curves and height, and were driven by ergonomics and function. He exhibited a collection of bentwood furniture at the 1937 World Exposition in Paris, launching his international reputation; his Eva Chair (then called Work Chair) was purchased for the public spaces of the soon-to-be-opened Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 1939, he exhibited at the New York World’s Fair, cementing his popularity in the U.S. In the 1950s, his attentions turned to architecture, and he often incorporated large glass pieces into his residential projects. In the 1960s, Mathsson again focused on furniture, and began working with tubular steel. Notably, he collaborated with Danish mathematician Piet Hein to create the Super Ellipse Table, which rested on span legs that made the tabletop appear to hover in space.

Danish scientist, mathematician, inventor, artist, designer, philosopher, and poet Piet Hein was born in Copenhagen in 1905. Despite his brilliance—or because of it— he never completed a degree. He first enrolled in philosophy courses at the Metropolitan School (Metropolitanskolen) of Copenhagen, but left soon after to study art at a private academy and eventually the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts (Kungliga Akademien för de Fria Konsterna) in Stockholm.  Then, he returned to Copenhagen to study philosophy and theoretical physics at the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the University of Copenhagen (Københavns Universitet)—which would later be called The Niels Bohr Institute—and the Technical University of Denmark (Danmarks Tekniske Universitet). Hein’s diverse educational background facilitated his life’s work, which straddled the line between art and science.

During World War II, Hein joined the Danish resistance to the German occupation and began to publish a series of poems in the daily newspaper, Politiken, under the pseudonym Kumbel Kumbell. These grooks—or Danish poems—were often coded messages to the Danish people not to succumb to evil, and generally contained philosophical advice on the art of living. He would go to publish thousands over his lifetime.

In the postwar era, Hein invented the superellipse—an advanced geometrical figure that combined the ellipse and rectangle—which he derived through the mathematics. Hein first used the superellipse to solve a traffic problem in Stockholm’s Sergel’s Square, in the form of an elliptical roundabout. The new oval-like shape was quickly adopted by postwar Scandinavian architects, and it has since then been used in buildings and urban planning worldwide, from Canada, Mexico, and the US, to France, Japan, and beyond.

Hein also used the superellipse in his industrial designs, including the Superellipse Tables (1968), designed in collaboration with Swedish architect-designer Bruno Mathsson (1907-1988) and Danish architect-designer Arne Jacobsen (1902-1971) for the Danish manufacturer Fritz Hansen.

Other designs in Hein’s repertoire include sculptures, such as the Helix Helios Sundial (1989); various board games, such as Soma (1933) and Con-Tac-Tix (1942); and lighting fixtures, such as the Ra Lamp (1931) and Funco Table Lamp (1933). Hein’s Super-Egg (1965) is another elliptical design that has taken many different forms, including children’s toys, houseware, and lighting fixtures.

Throughout his life, Hein worked with and befriended several intellectual luminaries, including American mathematician Norbert Wiener, Danish physicist Niels Bohr, Albert Einstein, and Charlie Chaplin. Hein received many awards and accolades, including the Aarestrup Medal (1969), the Danish ID Prize (1971), and Chapter of the Royal Danish Order of Chivalry (1989), among many others. In 1972, Yale University award Hein an honorary doctorate degree. Hein passed away in 1996.

Danish cabinetmaker Fritz Hansen founded his eponymous furniture manufacturing company with his son Christian in Copenhagen in 1885. The first three decades were dedicated to hand-making wood and iron frames for upholstered furniture. In 1915, however, Christian began to introduce industrial processes, such as steam-bending wood, which enabled the family business to mass-produce at a larger scale.

In 1932, Christian brought in his own sons, Fritz and Søren, who updated the product line to include more modernist styles, like Søren’s Thonet-inspired DAN Chair (1930) and a cantilevered wicker and tubular steel chair by architect Mogens Lassen (1933). Other early classics in the Fritz Hansen catalog include Kaare Klint’s Church Chair (1936), Hans Wegner’s China Chair (1944), and Børge Mogensen’s Spoke Back Sofa (1945).

During the 1950s—thanks especially to the contributions of architect Arne Jacobsen—Fritz Hansen entered its golden era, creating some of the most iconic Scandinavian designs of the 20th century. Arne Jacobsen’s Ant Chair (1952), Swan Sofa (1958) and Egg Chair & Ottoman (1958), as well as later designs by Verner Panton, Piet Hein, and Grete Jalk, all helped to cement Fritz Hansen’s legacy as one of the most beloved producers of high quality, simple-yet-elegant, Danish modern furniture.

In 1979, after 107 years of family ownership, Fritz Hansen was bought out by Skandinavisk Holding and is now known as The Republic of Fritz Hansen. Pieces from the company’s long history can be found in nearly every design museum collection there is, from MoMA and Cooper Hewitt in New York to the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. Arne Jacobsen’s collaboration with Fritz Hansen was the subject of the Siéntate Siéntete exhibition, hosted by the Chamber of Architects in Madrid in 2010.  

* All images courtesy of Republic of Fritz Hansen.