Mogens Lassen (1901-1987), Danish architect and the creator of the Egyptian Table, became one of the pioneers of modernism in Denmark where the works and ideas of Le Corbusier nourished Lassen's cubistic architectural ideals. With an education in construction technology he became the frontrunner of concrete structures but always in interaction with nature.

Having qualified as a brick layer (1919-23) he enrolled at Kunstakademiets Arkitektskole in 1923 but he educated himself at a number of design studios, amongst others with Tyge Hvass (1925-34). He stayed in Paris in 1927-28 where his interest was aroused in Le Corbusiers theses on the house as a tool for a free lifestyle. A way to emancipate the house from stringent conventional thinking was to create rooms with an inserted storey and Lassen designed houses where both daylight shaped the rooms and where the outdoors were just as thought-through as the indoors.

In 1939-67 Lassen worked as an architect for "Den Permanente Udstilling for Dansk Kunsthåndværk og Kunstindustri&quot in Copenhagen; here he arranged a number exhibitions that resulted in Danish design winning international recognition. As well as his many projects, villas, apartment buildings, stadiums and shops, he also designed furniture, household goods and craft. Although his steel furniture from the 1930s is original variants of the new creations of international modernism, it is above all his simple, functional wooden furniture, such as the Egyptian Table, that has become genuine classics.

In 1971 he was awarded the C.F. Hansen Medal.