Moss Hotel, Tasmania - Harper's BAZAAR (Copy)

Entering Hobart’s newest hotel, Moss, is like crawling into a rock cave on the rainforest floor, except there’s an elevator, plenty of standing room and you don’t have to touch any dirt. It’s dark but not too — ambient rather than hazardous. Plants climb the walls and shards of natural light poke through slivers of glass. The colour palette is, unsurprisingly yet satisfyingly, moss green. Moss: a sign of renewal. A fitting analogy for a Georgian-era building that was once a whalers’ warehouse, a brothel and a nightclub, and is now Instagrammable accommodation with Grown Alchemist toiletries.

The building’s storied past has been embraced by Ganche Chua from Tasmanian architects Circa Morris- Nunn. The firm specialises in conserving and adapting historic buildings and transforming Hobart’s waterfront (The Henry Jones, Macq 01 Hotel and Brooke Street Pier are all their handiwork). As such, the history of the building is omnipresent: convict-cut sandstone, rafters and corrugated iron ceilings from the 1830s, and DJ posters from the 1990s are on display in various rooms.

In a showcase of local talents, just about everything here is Tasmanian: Hannah Lorenz’s cushions; Andrew Bull’s Tasmanian bedheads; Matt Prince’s chairs; Derek Henderson’s photographs; the items in the (street-priced) minibar. Even the plants are local, grown in a nursery in the foothills of kunanyi/Mount Wellington.

Every detail, right down to sound-proofing (it’s above a pub, after all), has been carefully considered in the making of this sanctuary. Emerging from the sliding green door out onto the busiest strip in town is jarring: like stepping out of the rainforest into a major train station — but knowing you can retreat back under your canopy any time is a glorious feeling.

Moss, 39 Salamanca Place, Hobart; stage two, Moss 25, opens at 25 Salamanca Place on December 26, mosshotel.com.au.

This story originally appeared in the January/February 2020 issue of Harper’s BAZAAR magazine. Image: Sean Fennessy.