Created for Muuto’s 20-year anniversary, Inner View Object grew from Danish designer Lise Vester’s ongoing curiosity about how the things around us shape the way we feel. Released as a limited, numbered edition of 150 pieces, the design brings together perception, atmosphere and emotional presence. It explores how an object can subtly alter our awareness of ourselves and the environment around us. 

Mouth-blown in Murano, where glassmaking has been refined over generations, Inner View Object brings this long craft tradition into a contemporary, sculptural form. Its reflective surface captures the room in a shifting image, changing with light, movement and color. Rather than simply reflecting a space, it offers a different way of seeing it. 

Together with Lise Vester, we traveled to Murano, Italy, to follow the making of the 150 Inner View Objects, each shaped by hand using the island’s long-standing glassmaking traditions. For Vester, this process is where the object becomes most meaningful. Inner View Object is not about giving a fixed image back to us, but about creating a moment of heightened awareness — shaped through the meeting of material, craft and reflection.  

A shift in perspective that can make a familiar room feel different, more layered and more alive. In conversation with Lise Vester, we explore perception, craft and the emotional qualities that emerge when design changes the way we look. 

Your starting point was an investigation into mirrors. How did that lead to Inner View Object? 

This project grew from my interest in how design can create new perspectives. I was especially drawn to convex and concave forms. We know convex mirrors from practical situations — shops, buses, rear-view mirrors — because they expand our field of vision. But they are rarely brought into the home in a more considered way. 

I have a large convex mirror in my own apartment, and whenever people visit, they are immediately drawn to it. There is something almost magical about seeing yourself and the whole room at once. That became the starting point: how could this familiar optical principle become something more sculptural and domestic? 

I’m interested in objects that sit somewhere between categories. Inner View Object has a reflective quality, but it is also very sculptural. It stands independently as a three-dimensional object within the room. At times, I think of it almost as a small black hole — absorbing the room visually while reflecting it back at the same time. It can almost camouflage itself because everything around it becomes part of its surface. That ambiguity is important to me. It challenges what we expect from a design object.

Inner View Object gives you a much wider field of vision. What does that change? 

A flat mirror gives you something close to a one-to-one reflection. A convex surface does something completely different. It minifies the world, so a much larger part of the space can appear within a relatively small surface. 

That changes the experience of looking. You notice yourself, but also everything around you. I keep one beside my computer, and suddenly I can see what is happening behind me. It almost feels like having a small superpower. For me, that expanded view is also about awareness. You become more conscious of your relationship to the room — the light, movement, and people around you.

How did craft shape the expression of the piece? 

I started by experimenting with glassblowing, making different convex and concave forms and exploring traditional silvering techniques. The reflective layer sits behind the glass, so the glass's curvature determines how the surroundings come back to you. 

The final object is mouth-blown in a mold, which gives the overall form consistency, but the handmade process is still visible. There can be tiny bubbles, differences in thickness, or subtle shifts in color intensity.  

Color also changes the way the surface is perceived. What role does it play? 

We explored how color could become part of the glass itself rather than something applied afterward. I was interested in a fading quality, where the color moves into the reflective surface and creates something more atmospheric. 

The object is already constantly changing depending on the light and the space around it. Color adds another layer. It gives the piece its own presence while still allowing the surroundings to become part of it. 

What do you hope happens when someone lives with Inner View Object? 

Suddenly the room appears different, or you notice something behind you that you would normally miss. I think those small interruptions can have an emotional quality too. The object changes with the light, with movement, and with where you stand, so the experience is never completely fixed. Some moments might feel playful; others quieter or more contemplative. 

For me, that is where the object becomes interesting. It heightens your awareness of what is already there — as you move around it, the reflection shifts and the familiar begins to feel new. That sense of discovery is what I want it to keep giving: a small shift in perspective that changes how you experience your surroundings.