Hhe vast majority of her clientele may be in Amsterdam, but interior designer NiNa Graziosi actually lives in The Hague. Her agency Graziosi Progetti is also based in this city: in the Nirwana flat building on the corner of Benoordenhoutseweg and Willem Witsenplein, opposite the Haagse Bos.

Nina Graziosi.

Just before the interview, we meet NiNa, who is putting her BMW on the charging pole on the street. "I just got back from singing lessons," the half-Italian tells us. "Very good for your mind." An indoor lift then takes us to her flat, where there is a mannequin with a beautiful vintage dress by the late fashion designer Gianfranco Ferré. Around the corner a painting by Kees van Dongen. As Graziosi puts a Bialetti percolator on the stove, you know: this is where the best of the Netherlands and Italy come together.

The same goes for her company. "If I had to describe our identity, it is a combination of modern and baroque, of Dutch and Italian. Yes, a bit NiNa. Although my team and I are not just the determining factor when we get an assignment.

Carte blanche

Above all, we listen carefully to what the person or organisation wants. Do you want to stand out? Do you want to be happy in your home? Remodel your property so you can charge a higher rent? Transform your office so that employees can work partly at home and partly in the office? The mix is never the same. Existing architecture also plays an important role. We demolish or strip ugly buildings, but you can't do that with monuments, of course. If I get carte blanche from a client, there is more NiNa in it. It remains an interesting journey."

Amsterdam, Milan and Paris

After studying architectural design in 1989 at the art academy in The Hague, NiNa Graziosi gained experience in Amsterdam, Milan and Paris. Three years later, she founded her own company. "My first client was a hairdresser friend in a village near Rotterdam. The dignitaries there liked it so much that I was also allowed to decorate their houses. Old-fashioned word-of-mouth advertising."

Soon she was getting more commissions, especially for offices, where it was often investors and end users who sought advice from Graziosi Progetti's team. "Good interior design is much more than aesthetics. It can improve staff synergy, increase productivity and make people work more efficiently. So I sometimes call our work 'plastic surgery of architecture'."

Bitterballs

One of its projects is the ITO Tower in Amsterdam's Zuidas ('the most expensive square metres in the Netherlands'). The 25-storey office building from 2003 is one of the most striking buildings on Gustav Mahlerlaan. Only the entrance was inadequate. "It was really a megalomaniacal hall where nobody liked to stay," he says.

The entrance to the ITO Tower (Zuidas) now looks like a five-star Parisian hotel lobby.

Graziosi wrote down all the negative impressions, such as: 'Entrance, crematorium.' But there were more problems: reverberant acoustics due to the hard stucco ceilings and glass walls, unclear routing ("the reception was at the very back") and odour nuisance at the toilets. "Those were adjacent to a catering building. A reek of bitterballs met you." And then there was a gigantic draught hole.

Five-star hotel lobby

After winning the pitch, the transformation began. Sliding doors were replaced with elegant glass turnstiles and the mirror glass with ultra-transparent glass, so you could finally see inside. Inside, a sound-absorbing, woven carpet measuring 7 by 7 metres was hung. In addition, a mirror wall was placed behind a display case of plants. "You now walk towards the light instead of a blind wall. It looks like a five-star hotel lobby that wouldn't be out of place in Milan or Paris."

Anna Van Toor and The Sting at the Mall of the Netherlands.

Graziosi is also a sought-after architect in the retail sector. Fifteen years ago, when she was given carte blanche to design the new headquarters for fashion chain The Sting Companies, the owners were so enthusiastic that her team was also allowed to look after their clothing shops.

Then she likewise asks the client the necessary questions. 'Why are you successful?' 'What is your vision?' 'What do you think are your best shops?' "To get a picture of a company's strengths and areas to improve. Yes, I also ask them the results. They also hire me to attract more customers. The till speaks the truth."

For instance, the Van Toor family, owners of the Anna Van Toor clothing company, called her when sales needed a boost. "In two days, I photographed 40 shops. What struck me then: the architecture was good, but inside it was dated, the routing could be better and the logo was too masculine."

Graziosi

Instead of completely remodelling one shop, Graziosi devised a smart shop concept with minimal architectural changes that allowed five shops to be done with the same budget. Satisfactorily, because the results went up." Very often she is told: 'It turned out exactly as we had hoped'. "As if they are surprised that it turned out this way. But we just translate the story they tell us. We just let the magic happen."

The click

Back to individuals, still an important target group for Graziosi, although the mutual click is indispensable. "It's all very personal. Sometimes I make wardrobes that hold the lingerie for the lady. That's how far it goes."

'I find it most enjoyable to work with the client.'

For an international family in Amsterdam Zuid, Graziosi Progetti renovated their flat (400 m2) including a garden. Yet here, too, she prefers to speak of co-creation. "Together with the wife and husband, I made a master plan. They had clear ideas about colours and atmosphere. I find it most enjoyable to work together with the client - after all, it's their home.

For an international family in Amsterdam South, Graziosi Progetti renovated their flat (400 m2) including garden.

The 1940s flat was completely gutted, the garden cleared. Incidentally, I do ask other professionals to be involved, such as a landscape architect for the garden. The ambience? I would say Armani."

Especially for the gentleman of the house, Graziosi designed a glass bottle wall for his wine collection. An ingenious system where the bottles remain perfectly horizontal in the untreated, folded, brass bottle supports. Graziosi shows a picture of the wall on her iPad. Afterwards, "I have been working on this whole project for three years. Everything has to be beautiful, I always go all the way."

www.graziosi-progetti.nl