Hugh McCarthy custom designs and makes original furniture and
built-in joinery. He can either work to your specific brief or can transform your concept
into a carefully crafted project.
Hugh can guide you through sketches, prototypes and shop drawings, all the way to
completing your project using appropriate materials, strong joints and durable
finishes. His work can be seen in bars, cafés, restaurants, board rooms, office and
retail spaces and has been commissioned by local and international architects,
interior and industrial designers for private residences and commercial
spaces.
Recent clients and collaborations have included:
Alexander and Co, Arent & Pyke, Simone Haag, FENDI, JCB Architects, Kirsten Thompson Architects, Seven
Seeds, Grey Goose Vodka, Bombay Sapphire, Therefore Stuio, Foolscap Studio, Sean Connolly at
Dubai Opera, The Prince Hotel Melbourne, Breathe Architects, St Ali Coffee, Zen Architects, Studio Bright, The Paramount Coffee Project, ONA
Coffee Canberra and Sydney, Techne Architects, Bergman & Co, MODA, ANZ, Milieu Property, Fonda Mexican, Shortstop Coffee & Donuts, ARM Architecture,
YSG Studio, HOTA Gallery, The Corner Hotel, Pop Plant, Smith Journal, Studio Isgro, Milly +
Co, Camilla Molders Design, MALA Studio, Doughboys Doughnuts, Harrison Interiors, Wingnut & Co, Parliament of NSW, Studioi A.mi.
JX8
JX8 (pictured here), is a twenty-seater table commissioned by ANZ and designed
and made for Foolscap Studio. The overall dimension is 6.0 x 1.6 x 0.75m - The largest table
Hugh McCarthy has ever made.
Hugh worked closely with Foolscap and their concept ‘Open
House’ to create a furniture piece to compliment the style and sophistication
of a meeting room adjacent to an open kitchen. Of all the options presented,
the four curved tops and eight extruded J shapes shown here had the right balance
of form and practicality and is closest to the earliest crude sketches in Hugh’s
sketchbook. The overall form is both playful and fluid with the manipulation of
convex and concave components.
There is a stack of woodworking techniques used in this
table, the likes of which Hugh had not attempted on this scale before. It took
up most of his workshop and was designed to be broken up, fit in a lift, and
then reassembled on site. The brass elements came later in the design process –
these are a solution to linking all the walnut components together whilst breaking
up the mass of dark brown woodiness.
This project demonstrates how designers and craftspeople can
collaborate and explore the possibilities of woodwork.
