In Hugh McCarthy's workshop, ideas rarely arrive fully formed.

A curve might begin as a rough sketch before becoming a cardboard prototype. A stack of timber might be assembled, dismantled and rebuilt several times before finding its final shape. The process, he says, is rarely linear.

“The process is messy, but it’s through that hands-on trial and error that I refine the work.”

It’s an approach that has guided more than a decade of making. Trained by craftspeople in Melbourne before further developing his practice in Japan, Hugh has built a reputation for creating furniture that celebrates both material and method. For Point Hotel’s future foyer, however, he was invited to take those same principles and push them somewhere new.

Working alongside interior designer Wendy Bergman, Hugh has designed a collection of sculptural oak columns and custom bench seating that will eventually become part of guests’ arrival experience.

Rather than treating art and furniture as separate disciplines, the commission sits somewhere between the two.

“I wanted to see what happens when you approach traditional woodwork from a purely sculptural angle.”

The three columns are constructed from stacked, irregular forms that feel at once familiar and unexpected. Built from oak and finished in a dark walnut stain, they’re assembled using the same joinery techniques found throughout Hugh’s furniture practice. Lap joints, mitres, butt joints and domino joints all play their part. Yet despite the technical precision involved, the pieces are driven as much by instinct as craftsmanship.

“My final decisions are largely intuitive. I’m always aiming to create pieces that feel unique on their own but relate to each other in a harmonious way.”

That relationship between individual pieces became particularly important in the Point Hotel commission, where the columns and seating are designed to work together as a family of objects within the foyer.

The goal was never simply to create artwork to be viewed from afar.

Instead, Hugh and Wendy explored how sculptural forms might help shape a guest’s journey through the space.

“You can relate to them from multiple angles as you walk through the foyer, making the art a part of your journey into the hotel.”

It’s a subtle distinction, but an important one. The pieces aren’t intended as static objects. They are designed to be encountered, passed, revisited and experienced differently depending on where you’re standing.

Perhaps that openness explains Hugh’s answer when asked what he hopes people will feel when they eventually encounter the work.

Rather than prescribing a response, he leaves space for interpretation.

“I don’t think there’s one way to feel and appreciate a work of art.”

“Hopefully, they offer a moment of curiosity or an unexpected pause in a guest’s day.”

Looking around the workshop, it’s easy to understand what he means.

Among the sketches, timber, and evolving prototypes, curiosity seems to be where every piece begins.