A local, regenerative, and beautiful custom lighting journey.
Project: Gather Eatery, Smales Farm, Takapuna
Project: Custom lighting installation
Design team:
Jonathan Goss, Ellegard/Goss Architects
Amy Melchior , Ripe Creative Director
When Jonathan Goss of Ellegard/Goss Architects (Tāhuna, Queenstown) approached Lof late in 2024 for a custom lighting solution, we were pretty excited to create something special for Gather Eatery — the new glasshouse café at Smales Farm, Takapuna, from the incredible team behind the iconic Ripe Deli in Richmond Road, Tāmaki Makaurau.
Gather is a place where warmth, craftsmanship, and natural light combine with high ceilings and generous serving of glass. Together, Jonathan and Ripe’s creative director Amy Melchior crafted an interior and design concept that layers natural textures, including custom wool lights from us, handcrafted tiles from Middle Earth Tiles, and beautiful icons by one of our favourite local graphic design duo’s Studio Akin , inspired by Amy’s own seaweed artworks collected on Waiheke. The result is a space that feels inviting, relaxed, and full of character. Add to that a striking glasshouse structure wrapped in recycled French brick and expansive red scoria windows designed by Izzard Design, and you have an absolute dream team.
The Brief: Provide a lighting solution that could fill a large, open space with visual volume, enhance acoustics, and complement Gather Eatery’s vision of a warm, welcoming, slightly retro aesthetic inspired by Auckland café culture of the 1990s.
We loved being included in this beautiful project — it’s not every day you get invited to be part of such a considered, thoughtful, and beautiful design. Over six months, we dedicated ourselves to this project, with extensive R&D required to adapt our knitted light, wooden, and metal components to this new size and design. We embraced the challenge of a live R&D brief, which pushed us further than usual —this project was even more craft-based and hands-on than our standard lights, requiring us to draw deeply on the skills and capabilities of local Tāmaki Makaurau craftspeople and artisans to bring the design to life.
Design Challenges
Scale & Weight: Create a 900mm diameter double-hoop pendant, much larger and heavier than our standard Wool Hoop designs. Each light weighs 4.5 kg, including over 3 kg of premium New Zealand wool and half a kilo of CNC-cut birch plywood, requiring new engineering solutions and custom 3D-printed end caps.
Collaboration: Work with new and existing suppliers in innovative ways to achieve the larger scale, ensuring every element reflected expert craftsmanship and precise design.
Our Solution
Eight Ø900mm double-hoop lights: The larger size makes a grand statement, while the double-hoop design adds subtle complexity, increases acoustic absorption, and conceals the bulb.
Custom Hexagonal Frame (“Star-Merang”): Redesigned from our Tri-Merang frame to accommodate the additional weight and diameter, creating visual complexity while maintaining structural integrity through consultation with multiple engineers along the way.
3D-Printed End Caps: 48 custom pieces made in Surfdale, Waiheke Island, to securely join hoops while keeping clean lines and securing the wool to the frame.
NZ-made Materials: 16 shaped bronze 900 Ø hoops, 8 kg CNC-cut birch plywood, and 24 kg of premium certified regenerative New Zealand wool for the 8-light installation, all cut, shaped, and knitted hyper-locally in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.
Acoustic Benefits: Over 3 kg of wool per light absorbs sound, reducing echo and creating a calmer atmosphere in the high-ceilinged space.
The Result
The installation at Gather Eatery is a beautiful celebration of New Zealand wool, showing how sustainable, local, thoughtful design can transform a space. One of the early guiding principles of the project by the client was:
"We wanted to create a space where anyone and everyone feels comfortable."
Gather’s large windows, natural textures, and tactile wool lighting perfectly achieve this, creating a space that is both warm and inviting. The wool adds softness, warmth, and acoustic comfort, complementing the café’s cosy yet sophisticated aesthetic. We absolutely loved being part of this project — it’s not every day a lighting brief is this craft-driven, hands-on, and deeply considered comes along. It pushed us creatively and technically, and allowed us to collaborate closely with local craftspeople and artisans to realise something truly special.
Visit Gather Eatery to experience the soft, tactile lighting in person and support this design-led, values-driven hospitality space.
Gather Eatery
79–94 Taharoto Rd, Takapuna
Opening Hours:
Monday — Friday, 7am — 3pm
Saturday & Sunday, 8am — 3pm
gathereatery.co.nz
Interested in a custom lighting project?
We take on a very limited number of bespoke projects each year, working only on concepts that align with our vision. If you have a project in mind, contact Sophie at sophie@lof.nz to discuss possibilities.
