10 Years of Circle: In Conversation with Milena Kling

When I speak with Milena, she is sitting outside her Berlin studio, “between the trees.” Midway through the conversation, someone from her team brings her coffee. “Thank you, darling,” she says warmly, before returning to the story. It is a small, ordinary ritual – and somehow a fitting beginning for a conversation about Circle, a glass created to make even the simplest act of drinking water feel special.

 

 

 

 

Looking back to the moment Circle first began, what do you remember as the original spark behind it? Was there a particular feeling, material experiment, or muse that shaped the idea?

 

I believe it was a combination of two things.

 

The first was an experiment. I had been working with the linear structure of woven copper and had made some tests at the glass oven. After the glass cooled down, we received the results, and I kept them in my little reservoir of experiments.

 

Then, around the same time, a friend I was working with on an exhibition approached me. She had started collaborating with a fine dining restaurant that was going to open a few months later. They were interested in my glass objects, in my process, and in my approach to working with mouth-blown glass. So she asked if I would be interested in meeting them.

 

We had a really beautiful conversation about craft, about hosting people, and about all the senses involved in that experience. At one point, they asked me if I could imagine creating a water glass for them.

 

In fine dining, the glasses for wine, spirits, or other drinks often change with every dish. But the water glass is different. It is there from the moment you enter the space. It stays with you. In a way, it guides the whole experience.

 

I really loved that idea — serving water. I started thinking about what it means to create a glass not for luxurious liquors, spirits, or wines, but for water. Water is fresh, natural, reviving. It is the base of everything. We live on this blue planet, and water is both incredibly luxurious and very basic, very pure.

 

So I loved the idea of creating a water glass that would almost make you feel as if you were only holding water in your hand.

 

 

 

 

The glass itself carries that idea very physically – in the thinness of the walls, the delicate lines, and the circular ripple at the base. How did the shape and structure of Circle develop from that original thought of water?

 

I did not want to start with the glass and then fill it with water. I wanted to create the glass from within — to start from the centre, from the water itself, and work outwards towards the glass.

 

When I began the first experiments, I started to merge the idea of water with the woven copper tests. My friend Claudia Schoemig, who created the ceramics for the restaurant, was working with very fine, hand-drawn lines on her pieces. I thought it would be beautiful to work with lines as well.

 

So the softness of water came together with the linear structure of the woven copper. At first, we wanted the form to be circular. But through the heat, through the way I was shaping the soft material and how it transformed with the glass, these natural circles began to appear in the first experiments.

 

And I thought: this is even more touching.

 

For me, it translated the softness, purity, and ever-changing, transformational power of water into glass. The first samples were all very unique and different, and I continued working with a soft mould so that each piece could keep this feeling of subtle change.

 

 

 

 

So the circles at the base are almost like ripples on water?

 

Yes, exactly. It is like a drop on a lake that ripples outwards. That was the idea. We tested different materials to work with, and when we found this ripple effect, we really loved it.

 

 

 

 

 

Although Circle began as a water glass, people now use it for many different drinks — coffee, champagne, wine, spirits, cocktails. Was that something you imagined from the beginning, or did it come as a surprise?

 

Pretty much everything, yes, [laughs]. And I actually loved it.

 

 

Even though the initial idea was to create a glass for water, I think any liquid can tell its own story through it. When people first told me they were drinking champagne from Circle, or using it for their favourite spirits or drinks, it made complete sense to me. The same goes for wine.There is something very contemporary about this approach — having one glass that can be used for different things, in different moments, across different dimensions.

 

 

Have you noticed what people tend to connect with most about the glass?

 

Yes, I think what I hear a lot is that people love the glass visually, but when they touch it, that becomes a really special moment.

 

It is super light, almost as if you were holding water in your hand. The shape is also unexpected. It is not a very loud glass. From the first sight, it feels calm and pure. But when you look closer and hold it, you feel the fine lines imprinted in the glass, the lightness, and the quality.

 

Circle has been copied many times, as you know. But what I often hear is that when people actually hold it and touch it, they can really see and feel the difference.

 

I have heard this from restaurants as well. When guests enter the room, they first see the whole space around them. But then, when they touch the glass, they understand that something is different here. Even the water glass is special. It becomes part of the experience – this feeling that craft is present in every detail.

 

It is beautiful how Circle turns something as ordinary as drinking water into a special experience. Do you still feel that yourself, even after all these years?

 

Yes, I still have that feeling myself. When I drink water every day in my studio, or at home with my children, we always drink from the glasses. And somehow, even after ten years, it still feels very special.

 

Did you imagine that Circle would still resonate with people ten years later?

 

When I first held the first four glasses we blew in Nový Bor, I felt that they were very special to me.

 

Then, when we launched them with the restaurant and there were so many requests — people were even lining up — it made me incredibly happy. But I do not think I looked so much into the future at that moment. I was just incredibly happy about what was happening then.

 

And then came the connection with Lasvit. To understand that they did not just want to produce a glass that was already on the market, but really wanted to include it in their collection, alongside designers I absolutely admire — like Nendo, the Campana Brothers, and Zaha Hadid — was a very big honour for me. It was also very exciting.

 

At the same time, I felt that the glass almost had a life of its own. And that just made me really happy.

 

And now, after ten years, how do you imagine the future of Circle?

 

We have already been working on a secret extension of the Circle family, and I am looking forward to it being released — hopefully soon.

 

I think there is a lot of potential in the design itself. I am especially looking forward to the cocktail version. We have also designed a really beautiful carafe, a very special tumbler, and some wine glasses. I would love to see them come out and give the original glasses a kind of extended family.

 

I think that would be fantastic, also for restaurants, because many of them need a cocktail version of the glass. We have created something really beautiful in the studio, and I cannot wait for it.

 

I am really thankful to Lasvit for producing the glasses in such stunning quality, and for involving the best glassmakers in creating Circle. Because even though the glasses look very minimalistic and pure, they are incredibly demanding to craft. But that is often the case – the finest things require the finest craft.

 

 

About Milena Kling

 

In her Berlin-based studio, Milena Kling designs and creates objects, concepts and interior spaces. With a passion for raw materials and processes, she develops products and installations for local and international clients. Her work is based on great fascination for natural phenomena, profound research, and her extensive background in architecture. Her experimental methods articulate in the objects she creates. She graduated in Product & Process Design from the University of Arts Berlin in 2012 and her work was nominated for various awards, like the international “Modern Craft of the Year 2013” and “Talente”. It was showcased in several group and solo exhibitions and is represented by “Die Neue Sammlung/ Pinakothek der Moderne Munich.” She creates projects for her design studio and creates installations and settings for renowned brands like Hermés, New York Times, Nomos and various magazines, while also working as a designer for artist Sarah Illenberger.