Architect John Vedel-Rieper was born in 1929 and died in 2004. He was the son of Fritz Rieper and Ellen Amalie Skjoldager.

John Vedel-Rieper graduated from the School of Interior Design in 1949. After six years of employment with Børge Mogensen, he established his own studio in 1960. For 11 years, John Vedel-Rieper was head of the furniture laboratory at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture, and he has held a number of other positions of trust, including as a member of the Danish Design Council and the Pattern Appeal Board.

John Vedel-Rieper has made a significant contribution to the organizational and coordinating work within design art both in Denmark and abroad. He has, among other things, chaired a Unesco seminar on furniture design in Mauritius in 1990 and organized exhibitions in most of Europe and the USA.

From 1977 to 1984 John Vedel-Rieper was in charge of the Danish Society's seminars in the Nordic countries, and in the period 1994-1997 he was coordinator of the independent institution Lærkestellet, and during the same period he led seminars at Rødding Højskole, among others.