Belgian designer Maarten Van Severen (1956-2005), the son of abstract painter Dan Van Severen, studied architecture at the Saint-Lucas Institute in Ghent. Around 1985 he set up his own workshop for furniture and interiors. Most of the pieces of furniture he designed thereafter (between 1988 and 1995) were in production with the Dutch firm Lensvelt.

Maarten Van Severen also designed interiors in France for the Villa Dall’Ava (1991) in Saint-Cloud and the Lemoine House (1999) in Floirac commissioned by the Dutch Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) of Rem Koolhaas. He collaborated intensively with the Swiss firm Vitra, that produces his chair .03 since 1998 and also Kartell, Edra and Bulo. He also designed the outside furniture in Pont du Gard in France (1999).

His last big projects were the public spaces of the Van Abbemuseum (2001) in Eindhoven (NL) and the kitchen pavilion for the Boxy brothers (2005) in Deurle (Belgium).

Now his streamlined and minimalist work takes part of permanent collections in prestigious worldwide institutions such as the MoMA in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.