Piet Hein
Piet – pronounced Pete – Hein was born in Denmark in 1905 and was the son of an engineer father and ophthalmologist mother. Growing up in Copenhagen was fairly ordinary and he obtained a general certificate from the Metropolitan Grammar School before studying philosophy at the University of Copenhagen in 1924. Hein was an interesting man who is probably best known for his ‘Grooks’.
Hein wasn’t exactly sure which direction he wanted to take with his life and the 19 yea
r old Hein left the University to study for a short period of the time at a private arts school. He then attended the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm before returning to Denmark and the University of Copenhagen. He decided to study philosophy and theoretical physics at the University’s Technological University and at the Niels Bohr Institute. While many people who look at Hein’s choice of subjects as unusual, he did not see any gap between the world of art and the world of science.
Throughout Hein’s life he combined art and science into one and this caused many people to refer to him as a Universalist. His work is very recognizable regardless of if it is scientific papers, essays, architecture, or poetry. He had a very discernable style to his language and any other material he worked with turning it into art. He went against the current of architectural production and many other designers have described his entire collection of work by using the word ‘harmony’.
Hein’s architectural accomplishments are best known as the super ellipse. Using mathematics to form his designs, he later described the super ellipse as a way to solve the ‘double contrast between the circle and the square and the ellipse and the triangle’. Super ellipses can be seen all over Stockholm in roadways, in Canada, France, Japan, America in residential areas, and in sports complexes, such as the Olympic Stadium in Mexico City. He also used the super ellipse in his furniture design, and super ellipse tabletops became every popular throughout the general public.
Other items that Piet Hein developed upon the completion of his super ellipse is the super egg, board games, drink coolers – metallic ice cubes that always stay cold – and anti-stress balls. The Sinus lamp is also a Hein creation.
Hein was lucky enough to call the Danish physicist Niels Bohr friend and through Bohr he met Albert Einstein and Charles Chaplin after World War II. Before his death in 1996 he received numerous awards and honours, making him the most highly awarded Dane in the 20th century. Some of the awards include: Aarestrup-medal in 1969; the Industrial Design-prize in 1971; the Storm Petersen-prize in 1978; the Medal Ingenio et Arti in 1985; the annual prize of Danish Design Council in 1989; and the Tietgen Medal in 1990. He was also awarded honorary memberships in the Students' Association, the Royal Copenhagen Shooting Society, and Det Danske Broderskab – the Danish Guild. He additionally won the following international awards: Alexander Graham Bell Silver Bell in 1968; Die gute Industrieform in 1971; Doctor of Human Letters at Yale University in 1972; Huitième Salon Internationale du Lumiaire in 1973; and Nobel Lecturer in 1983.