Piet Hein studied philosophy at Stockholm University, theoretical physics at the Niels Bohr institute in Copenhagen and visual art at the Royal Academy of Art in Stockholm.
Together with the Swedish architect David Helldén, Hein created the super ellipse traffic plaza at Sergels Torg in Stockholm in the early 1960’s. Hein also used the super ellipse shape for the top on the iconic table series Supercircle, Superellipse, and Trisupercircle, that he designed together with the Swedish architect and furniture designer Bruno Mathsson.
Hein and Mathsson developed the table’s revolutionary tension leg to be assembled without tools. The production of the table began in 1968 by the Danish manufacturer Fritz Hansen and later by Bruno Mathsson’s own company Mathsson International.
Hein was very prolific as a poet, where he wrote the so called grooks, short poems with everyday philosophical themes. From 1940 to 1963, Hein published 20 collections of grooks.
Piet Hein and Bruno Mathsson are represented with the Superellipse table at among many others the Swedish National Museum of Fine Arts in Stockholm. Piet Hein died in 1996 at the age of 90.
