DESIGNING AROUND THE WORLD

Gracinha Viterbo has a stake in international design leadership

At just over years old, internationally renowned interior designer racinha Viterbo has already built a year career based on a vast and diverse body of internationally renowned work.

orn in into a family closely associated with the arts, and with a strong connection to the interior design, racinha Viterbo studied interior design at Central Saint Martins and Chelsea College of Art, the affiliates of the 8niversity of the Arts London.

At , she won a ritish Council study grant and decided to enrol in the foundation course at Central Saint Martins’ College of Art and Design in London – the only university she was ever interested in attending. Although she learned discipline and organi ation at the rench high school she attended in Lisbon, her time London fortified the foundation of her career further, teaching her to approach themes, find inspiration and develop new concepts. ,n sum, it was decisive in constructing her creative process.

After taking the foundation course, she decided to pursue architectural interior and spatial design at Chelsea College of Arts. She also spent most of her free time taking extra curricular studies in art history, furniture, photography, and other areas which complemented and enriched her training.

hen asked recently about what her ideal project would be, she simply replies, “A boat – for the challenge, limitations, and constraints a project like that involves!”

Paving a Career Path

After completing her university education, Viterbo took a speciali ed course in decorative arts and interior design at the prestigious ,nchbald School of Design, where her mother raoa Viterbo, one of Portugal’s leading interior decorators, also studied. ,n , while still in London, she joined Kelly Hoppen’s studio as an intern. However, after meeting Miguel Vieira da ocha, now her husband and managing partner, she decided to return to Portugal.

,n Portugal where she previously worked as a receptionist, she rejoined Viterbo ,nterior Design, founded in the s by her mother. 7he studio was growing and in urgent need of positioning as a structured company – not just as an interior design firm. Miguel Vieira da ocha also joined the team, taking over the company’s administrative and financial management, while racinha assumed the position as the company’s creative head.

,n , the studio won an international competition to design the interior of hotels in Angola for the first Angolan hotel chain. More projects – particularly residential – followed, which led them to open a shop and an interior design and decoration office in Luanda, which remained in operation until . The Road to Asia ith the financial crisis in , projects started to decline in Portugal and urope. Viterbo happened to receive an invitation from an old client – for whom she had designed a house in Lubango – to design