CAHS Midland — Aboriginal Artwork Wall
① The Brief — Aboriginal art, translated into living moss
Child and Adolescent Health Service (CAHS) at Midland engaged SPH Architecture and Interior Design to bring warmth, culture and a sense of place to its healing spaces. Central to the brief was an Aboriginal welcome artwork featuring concentric circles and connecting pathlines. SPH proposed reproducing a section of the artwork in MOSSwall, and worked with Castledex to develop colour and layout concepts before selecting a detail from the piece — a portion rich in the artwork's smaller circular motifs, chosen specifically to translate well into moss.
② The Challenge — scaling fine art to a living material
Reindeer moss doesn't lend itself to fine detail the way ink or paint does; every colour boundary is a physical edge between two textures of moss, so intricate line work has to be simplified without losing the artwork's character. Working closely with SPH and referencing Castledex's colour concept, the original artwork was narrowed down to a section that kept its key circular elements legible at scale, while translating cleanly into MOSSwall's seven available moss colours.
③ The Build — five panels, one artwork
The final installation measures 5m wide by 1.5m high, built from five individual 1m x 1.5m MOSSwall panels, each hand-finished to align seamlessly with the next so the artwork reads as a single continuous piece once installed. The colour palette — Iris, Erika, Natural, Mint, Red Pepper, Saffron and Wasabi — was matched to the artwork's original tones, with the surrounding background finished in green moss rather than left as exposed panel.
④ The Result — a cultural welcome, permanently in bloom
Installed in a corridor at CAHS Midland, the piece gives a static artwork new texture and depth, while requiring zero watering, sunlight or ongoing maintenance. It stands as a genuine collaboration between architecture, design and craft — SPH Architecture and Interior Design, Castledex and MOSSwall Australia — turning a piece of Aboriginal artwork into a living wall that will look the same for years to come.
"A story told in moss — permanent, textured, and true to place."