Born in 1978 in Arnsberg, Germany, Maarten Baas was raised in the Netherlands, his family having moved there shortly after his birth. In 2002 he graduated from the renowned Dutch arts academy, Design Academy Eindhoven. It was Baas's Graduation Project - a group of three anonymous, vintage Victorian furniture pieces which he 're-sculpted' with flame until they became charred, and which he titled "Smoke" - which became his first major recognized work; these pieces were almost immediately taken into a production version by the Dutch design company Moooi.

In 2004, in an exclusive collaboration with Moss, Baas created a new edition of one-of-a-kind pieces, called "Where There's Smoke…". In this new collection, historic, iconic examples of furniture, representing what are considered the most innovative 20th century aesthetic movements, are systematically burned and then stabilized with resins; their authorship and identity altered, they become revisionist, highly personal, audacious expressions of Baas, all now related through the eloquence of their metamorphosis. Moss first presented "Where There's Smoke…" in a solo exhibition of 25 unique pieces in its New York gallery in May, 2004; the collection continues to evolve, and Moss presents new one-off pieces each year.

Representing Baas exclusively in the United States, in 2006 Moss launched a new, extremely innovative Baas project, "Clay", in which industrial clay is hand-modeled on top of metal 'skeletons', forming unique chairs and tables, as well as a limited edition of large-scale fans, which are then lacquered in various primary colors, or chromed. "Clay" addresses the issue of form-giving in industrial design, revealing, literally, the designer's own 'hand' in this intimate process, today often concealed through the use of a computer. Baas's use of the clay-modeling technique, traditionally employed in rendering the human form from life-study, magnifies the sculptural quality inherent in all functional objects.

In 2007, at Design Miami/Art Basel, Moss launched yet another new and highly original Studio collection by Baas, "Sculpt". Emulating the spontaneous rough-cut forms created through hand-carved hard foam model prototyping, wherein a designer first executes a rough idea by quickly blade-cutting chunks of foam into sketch-like models, "Sculpt" is a limited edition series of monumental cabinets, tables, and chairs fluidly sculpted in welded steel, some with curvaceous wooden veneers.

In 2009, Baas began working in yet again a new medium, film. His “Real Time” clocks are in the permanent collection of the Zeiderzeemuseum, and the Rijksmuseum, the Netherlands.

Moss continues to collaborate with Baas on a number of major private commissions in the US, including architectural elements for interiors, as well as one-off furniture suites and the sculptural burning of personal works of art.

Named Designer of the Year at Design Miami 2009, Maarten Baas has emerged as a major new talent. His work is included in the permanent collections of several museums, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Groninger Museum and the Stedlijk Museum in the Netherlands, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.