Piet Hein was a modern danish renaissance man. He was born in 1905, died in 1996, studied mathematics, started art studies he never finished, started studies in theoretical physics and never finished that either. He wrote books, poetry (“gruks”); did illustration, designed objects and public spaces, researched mathematics and was a cosmopolitan. He is famous for the superellipse, though contrary to popular belief, he did not “discover” or “invent” it (everything you want to know about the mathematical properties of the superellipse and the super-egg, you can find here).

However; he used the superellipse to design beautiful and useful objects. Classics in danish design.

…He did, of course, design other things, that was not based on the superellipse. In fact, being a multitalented, his interests had a huge span. I might come back to that another day, but here are some vases he designed after playing with the thought of twisting some columns on a building in Copenhagen…