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Adam Gibson

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An initiative of Moda, St.David Apartments is a genuinely ambitious undertaking that pushes the boundaries across architecture, engineering, industrial fabrication and construction. But most of all, St.David is a celebration of Tasmania. Its vast landscape and astonishing beauty across both natural and man-made elements. A distinctive geological character meets the groundbreaking engineering of large infrastructure projects — including the Gordon Dam and world-class hydroelectricity power stations, the honest materials and rich natural textures of the wilderness.
In recent times, this ecological landscape and culture of groundbreaking industrial engineering has set the scene for a design renaissance — an inspired style of architecture of national, and international quality. They are brought to life by honest, long-lasting materials derived from Tasmania’s industrial past and demonstrate human intervention at its most impressive across trades, tools and techniques.

Architectural Inspiration

Moda selected Room 11, one of Tasmania’s most respected and progressive architects to conceptualise and design St.David. Room 11’s bold, uncompromising architecture is inspired by the elements of Tasmania; described by lead architect Thomas Bailey as bringing “a distinct sense of ‘raw directness’ that is unvarnished and unpolished, but absolutely beautiful.”
To capture and celebrate this rich source of inspiration, Moda commissioned Adam Gibson, one of Tasmania’s most renowned photographers to travel the landscape and visually document his travels.

'Infinite Prospects'

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THE JOURNEY
BEGINS

'Search and Uncover'

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'From Here... To There'

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WORDS
BY
ADAM GIBSON

To me, Tasmania is a land of archaic echoes and moody drama. Its disconnect from the Australian mainland is amplified by the unpredictable volatility of Bass Strait and a changeable beauty. There is a strong sense of how man has taken a rudimentary foothold on the landscape. A tentative grasp on a primitive surface, that has been won through a simple acceptance of the natural order of things. As a photographer, capturing the allure of Tasmania, with its sly shifts and rapid flits of light and its raw untamed beauty, comes with a sense of responsibility - to respect the inherent mystery that will always pervade this land, and to learn from it.
In many ways, this project is a dream brief for me. To travel my homeland and to simply explore and experience its landscape. To document the elements that make it so resonantly unique, and how those elements inform the innovation and design of its built environment.
Moving through infinite landscapes, both natural and man-made, I felt consistently as though Tasmania was consenting to my presence. That, my deference to the power and beauty that exists here, was what ultimately presented in the images I took.
My fascination for Tasmania’s extreme contradictions is apparent in the body of work that has been realised - on one hand, the images portray an alluring utopia, and on the other, a brutal and unforgiving side that is forever shadowing the periphery. I have been fascinated by this contradiction for many years. The sentiment caught within my images reflects an unspoken commonality amongst Tasmanians; an acceptance that we are all intrinsically tied to this place. We let the landscape, and our experience of it inform the decisions we make, across design, architecture, our characters and lives. The design intents and the materials we find in architecture have consistently reflected and reimagined the natural state of things and there is a collective appreciation for the unexpected sophistication found in uncomplicated forms and resilient materials.

This place, Tasmania, defines us.

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'Intersection of Mother and Man'

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