The incomparable Brigitta Spinocchia Freund on her unique interiors journey and creating timeless spaces for connection.
Brigitta Spinocchia Freund is the Founder and Creative Director of award-winning luxury studio Spinocchia Freund. Based in London, the Interior Architecture and Interior Design practice are renowned for injecting individuality alongside classic appeal across their residential and hospitality projects.
With over 25 years experience, Brigitta leads a brilliant team of designers at Spinocchia Freund; and her personal passion for the arts has trickled down into the studio’s design approach. As part of their interior architectural design and interior design services, the team source and curate art and collectible furniture, often using these pieces within their schemes. They also create bespoke pieces for clients, which could be anything from furniture to fabrics, table accessories and bed linen.
Brigitta’s mixed cultural background and younger years studying outside of the interior design field have given her a unique viewpoint. A seven year stint at a luxury property development firm, along with her own personal experiences and creative journey, have helped cultivate her signature style. Though Brigitta’s career wasn’t consciously planned in the early days, as we discover in this interview, her role as a designer was always destined.
What is your earliest memory of design having an impact on you?
We lived in Turkey for the first few years of my life, before moving to the UK, and my heritage is Greek and Italian. My parents had a store, first in Istanbul and then in Dorset, full of Eastern European artisan pieces crafted by local villages. I have very fond memories of going to antique markets and bazaars, collecting pieces, and this proved to be a very formative and lasting inspiration. So, you could say that design has always been present in my life and had a huge impact on me from an early age, and that my parents instilled this creative nature and notion of collecting from a very young age.
Where did you study and what did you specialise in?
I actually studied business and marketing at university, and my initial ambitions were to be a fashion designer. My pivot into interiors is quite well documented and becoming a Creative Director of a design business was the precursor to setting up [Spinocchia Freund] in 2009.
I knew that I wanted to be a designer in some respect and interiors is where I really found my calling. With my parents having their stores, and my grandfather and great-grandfather both working in construction, you could say that it’s in my blood. A lot of the architects that I really admire, like Thomas Heatherwick and John Pawson, also didn’t study within their respective fields, and I feel like they produce some of the most amazing and memorable work out there.
What kind of designer did you aspire to be and who are your inspirations?
I always wanted to be a designer that isn’t led by trends, instead creating spaces that are timeless and sourcing collectible pieces that can be sold on, enjoyed by others, or kept within the family for generations.
I am constantly inspired by the people and places around me. I travel a lot, both for work and personally, so I gather inspiration from all around the world. My absolute inspirational masters of design, who are people that inspire me a lot throughout my work are Andre Arbus, Gio Ponti, Jacques Adnet, Jean Prouve, Jean Royere, Dupré-Lafon, Jean-Michel Frank, Charlotte Perriand and Gaetano Pesce, who unfortunately passed away earlier this year, but is a designer who always brings a smile to my face.
What was your first professional design commission?
I worked on many amazing commissions in London in my early years and one of my first overseas projects was the La Belle Epoque property in Monaco, where I worked with incredible artisans on the furniture and also created a double height library space.
One other early project that comes to mind is a penthouse apartment in Lowndes Square. I had underestimated the size of the piano, so when it came to bring it through the window, it wouldn’t fit. We had closed the square to make this happen, and it was just hanging on the crane, swinging in the wind, while people were impatiently waiting for the square to reopen. We eventually removed the window frames and got the piano in, though it was chaos – but there are lessons in chaos, and I’m glad these challenges happened early on in my career.
What has been your biggest design commission to date?
We worked on a private client commission, comparable in size to a resort hotel; a five year project for us with incredible attention to detail in our drawing packages. Currently, I am working on a seafront villa, where the interior architecture is in collaboration with Foster + Partners, which is also a large commission.
Your studio works across interior architectural design and interior design – how do the two disciplines influence each other?
I love to create a flow within a project, making the most of the space as opposed to being rigid with the design, creating a sense of arrival and spaces for conversation and connection.
For some projects I might purchase a beautiful and unique object that the space will be designed around. An example of this is the indoor swimming pool at my Notting Hill project. The artwork we commissioned for the space was so specific and unique that the whole space had to be designed around it. This meant extending the height of the room, at the detriment of space in other areas, but it really made such a huge impact that I couldn’t see the space any other way.
We work with a lot of architects to ensure both inside and outside are enclosed cohesively in the design, much of which is location driven.
How would you describe Spinocchia Freund as a studio and a community of designers?
I like how you just described it, as a “community of designers”, because that’s what I feel like we are. I’m grateful to every member of our team for all the hard work they put into every project. Each team member has a slightly different skill set and we work to the team’s strengths.
We’re a tight knit studio, I’m hands on with every project, and I work with the project teams daily either individually or in groups to achieve all of our deliverables. A significant portion of this work is in the studio and we also work via Whatsapp groups and Zoom as needed. We initially hand draw all our plans, still to this day, before they get put into CAD. I love that physical connection to a project.
What are the key characteristics you look for when bringing new talent into your studio?
One of my key missions for the studio is to be constantly nurturing young talent. I enjoy bringing new designers onboard and seeing them grow within their careers. I believe it’s important to have new perspectives within a team, alongside our experienced team members.
What do you think should be a key focus for designers for the remainder of 2024 and beyond?
Sustainability – such a complex notion, and yet it is a huge focus. We approach this in several ways and in the furniture design, this can often mean using antique, collectible and vintage pieces. As well as my own passion for collecting, I enjoy sourcing and collecting for clients, every object is well thought out. It needs to have a good resale value, so if the client tires of it or it no longer works within the space, it can be sold on and enjoyed by someone else. Or they become family heirlooms, enjoyed for generations. We also live in a world where we’re constantly being sold to wherever we look, so it’s important to just slow down and really think about what we’re buying and why. I also love to support artisan and small local craft businesses, as well as new talent and I support this by working with these makers within our projects.
If you hadn’t become an interior designer, what would you be doing?
I would have been a fashion designer or stylist. I absolutely would have been in design, one way or another.
