Maarten Van Severen was greatly influenced by Minimalist art and architecture, but died aged only 49 in 2005. His approach to designing furniture was to reduce and refine his idea until only the most essential elements were left. The origin of the Low Chair was a series of sketches showing a single line looping back on itself, and the completed object is like a three-dimensional rendering of a two-dimensional drawing. It is simply made from a ribbon of bent aluminium joined under the seat by rubber spacers. Looked at from the side the chair almost disappears, becoming a line in space. It appears to grow out of the plane of the floor and to hover above it.

Initially Van Severen made his own furniture, but later in the 1990s he licensed production to the Belgian firm of Top Mouton who made about 40 of these chairs each year. In 2001 the Italian firm Kartell successfuly translated the design into acrylic for a broader market. Now the simple linear form of the chair was also transparent, further dematerialising the shape.