Maarten van Severen
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Maarten van Severen (5 June 1956, Antwerp, Belgium – 21 February 2005, Ghent, Belgium) was a Belgian furniture designer.
[edit] Summary
The son of an abstract painter, Maarten Van Severen chose to study architecture at Ghent art school; he completed three years before going to work in various agencies on interior design and furniture projects, then in 1986 started to make furniture. The first piece, a long and slender steel table, has since been recreated as an aluminium model, which has been further refined over the years.
In 1989 he produced his first wooden table; long, slim and pure in form. In 1990 he turned his attention to chairs. His work, hand-produced in his workshop in Ghent Belgium, reflects his quest for perfection in form, detail and fabrication. Maarten worked in a variety of different materials: aluminium and ply to bakelite and polyester.
Van Severen was also frequently commissioned as a decorator and furniture designer for private residence projects, teamed with Rem Koolhaas. They worked together on the Villa dall'Ava in 1990, then again in Bordeaux in 1996 (Maison ‡ Floirac, OMA). He has also created exhibition stands of steel shelving for use at shows and trade fairs.
Since 1997 he is involved in industrial productions for Target Lighting (U-Line lamp), Obumex (kitchen), Vitra (chair .03), Edra (Blue Bench), BULO (Schraag).
His initial work is still manufactured by aiki (formerly tm/top mouton) in Belgium today. Since 1999 there has been an intense collaboration in further developing his furniture.
