MILAN — Róisín Lafferty, based in the heart of Dublin, is the creative force behind the award-winning design studio driving the ongoing story of contemporary Irish design.

Since starting her studio in 2010, Lafferty has put her stamp on projects around the world, including design-forward workspace The Malin in Nashville and the Base & Boon salon in Riyadh and Diriyah, Saudi Arabia. She’s also infused her distinct contemporary-meets-heritage flair into the first London penthouse for omnichannel design platform Artemest.

On Thursday, Lafferty said she has launched an in-house lighting and furniture collection made through a network of artisans and workshops that span from Ireland to Italy.

The furniture line is rooted in the Sphere dining table, a collectible limited-edition collection crafted from rare Breccia Acquasanta marble in rose and dusty pink tones and a production of just five pieces made by a quarry that had been closed for 20 years.

The table is a feat of geometry and physics. The base of the table is sculpted into the shape of a giant ball and the tabletop appears to be resting weightless above it.

“It’s almost childlike if you think about it. But it’s actually the most complex because it doesn’t stand, it doesn’t balance, it almost defies gravity,” Lafferty mused.

Along with the furniture, Lafferty also unveiled Moonface, her debut lighting collection. Rooted in storytelling, memory and material refinement, Moonface is a collection of sculptural wall lights that balances playful form with timeless sophistication.

The collection draws inspiration from “The Faraway Tree” by Enid Blyton and its whimsical character Moonface, a childhood story that left a lasting impression on Lafferty’s imagination. The collection includes designs made with Volterra alabaster paired with aged solid brass.

The real driver was the opening of the Róisín Lafferty Gallery last year, set within a Georgian town house beneath the designer’s Dublin studio. Lafferty told WWD that it was the perfect place to curate her own furniture, lighting, along with art from some of the world’s most talented designers, makers and artists. “The focus is really for me to develop more of my own product, to establish the gallery as a destination here,” she said, showcasing art by Irish painter Molly Judd, alongside rare vintage furniture pieces like a screen by Claude & François-Xavier Lalanne.

Brexit in 2020 has changed the cultural fabric of the island, with the arrival of corporate bases for Google and Airbnb and a new wave of high-net-worth individuals driving the appetite for collectible design, she explained.

“They don’t want cookie cutter. They don’t want just a stamp of a designer’s name. They want something that is truly unique with everything bespoke and custom to them,” contended Lafferty.

According to the latest data provided by the Central Bank of Ireland, wealth has risen across multiple tiers of society, and extreme wealth remains highly concentrated. The wealthiest 10 percent of households hold nearly half of the country’s total net wealth. At the very top, roughly 11 billionaires hold as much wealth as the majority of the adult population.

So far, Lafferty’s network includes drivers of the Irish design industry, which is pillared by names like sculptural lighting maker and artist Niamh Barry and self-taught furniture maker Jospeh Walsh whose sculptural work is represented within Lafferty’s Gallery.