To consider a detail and its larger context at one and the same time is fundamental to a designers work and is critical to working with architects on a daily basis, Lau explained of her design approach in Expressive Modern, published just a year after she was awarded an honorary doctorate degree in fine arts from the New York School of Interior Design. Founding each project around a clients personal treasures, interests, or lifestyle needs while also considering the surrounding natural environment, she created specifically tailored spaces that feel both reminiscent of great rooms of history and wholly rooted in the present.With Robins, Lau collaborated particularly closely, cofounding the first edition of Design Miami in 2005 alongside the now London-based consultant Ambra Medda. The fair began with Laus co-curation of 15 galleries, and a design prize to the late architect Zaha Hadid. Lau later would become the first designer invited to exhibit at New Yorks annual Salon Art + Design fair, where she showed a richly decorated living room of objects, from ceramics to showpiece minerals, in homage to the 120-year influence of Art Nouveau, in 2017.With this background in mind, Laus design mantra of curating rather than merely decorating spaces was a natural conclusion. In September 2024, the designer debuted a truly curated space of her ownan inaugural eponymous gallery on the eighth floor of the New York Design Center. It showcases her expert selection of contemporary and vintage ceramic, glass, and metal works alongside textiles and furniture. Lau previously designed commercial projects with bravado for institutions like Baccarat, Elie Tahari, and the Museum of Arts and Design, and product collections for Doris Leslie Blau, Heath Ceramics, Kohler, Kyle Bunting, Maya Romanoff, and S.Harris.Despite Laus formal training and sophisticated experience in the decorative arts, her projects have no hint of arrogance. Instead, there is a perpetual joyfulness in their designs, one that can only come from someone whose creativity is firmly rooted in the earth and inspired by its spectacular spectrum. As Lau herself once wrote: I see nature as a friend and teacher, a mentor who shaped my imagination early on and continues to inform my interior design work.