Maarten Van Severen studied architecture at the art school in Ghent. In 1986 he designed his first furniture and in 1987 founded a furniture design workshop with limited, semi-industrial production. The unity of design and production was for a long time an essential basis for his work, which was characterized by the examination of several elementary types of furniture such as chairs, tables, loungers, shelves and cupboards. For these, Van Severen developed elementary solutions that were always based on comprehensive design research into questions of form, material and construction.