Northern Beaches Studio
Cadence & Co’s newly opened studio on Sydney’s Northern Beaches is a built expression of the company’s integrated, emotionally driven approach to residential design.
Known for delivering refined, deeply considered homes, Cadence & Co brings together architecture, interiors, construction and landscape design within a single, holistic model. Designed to support this methodology, the company’s new studio space removes barriers between disciplines, encourages open collaboration and offers clients a cohesive and personalised experience.
“It’s a space that reflects the values we bring to every project: clarity, connection and craft.”
The new base also reinforces the firm’s deep ties to the surrounding area. “The Northern Beaches are intrinsic to our story,” says Michael Kilkeary, design principal at Cadence & Co. “The studio puts us close to many of our clients, sites and collaborators, and offers a sense of connection to the natural environment, which continues to influence our design work. It’s a space that reflects the values we bring to every project: clarity, connection and craft.”
While built in the late 1980s, the building’s character has not been erased but reinterpreted. “We played with a sense of colour and nostalgia,” explains Kilkeary. “It’s about a comfortable sense of luxury, defined by layered spaces, texture and careful planning that enable an intuitive flow.”
The studio’s layout favours openness and promotes instinctive collaboration, with flexible zones, breakout areas and communal workstations.
This tactile, emotionally resonant quality is central to Cadence & Co’s design ethos of crafting spaces that not only function beautifully but feel grounded and human. The arrival space sets the tone, with Gary Heery’s striking photograph, Black Horse Bowing, anchoring the room. It’s a quiet yet powerful symbol of leadership built on trust and mutual respect, values that underpin how Cadence & Co operates.
The studio’s layout favours openness and promotes instinctive collaboration, with flexible zones, breakout areas and communal workstations that all encourage a shared rhythm across disciplines. “Collaboration happens instinctively in this space. It encourages daily interaction, whether it’s sketching ideas, reviewing material samples or walking a client through a shared vision.” It’s been created not only to support the growing team, but also to enhance clients’ experience by inviting them into the process with clarity and transparency.
A multidisciplinary model and integrated approach have long distinguished Cadence & Co. By uniting all disciplines, the team ensures that decisions are made in sync and refined at every stage. “We begin every project as a unified team, ensuring all disciplines are aligned from the very first conversation,” says Kilkeary. “Our process is intentionally collaborative; we value early input, regular check-ins and shared ownership of outcomes. And our clients benefit from a rich exchange of ideas and perspectives from the outset. We look at a project from every angle, balancing the creative with the practical, the aesthetic with the structural.”
The Northern Beaches studio is both a physical and philosophical cornerstone for the practice. It’s where ideas move fluidly, where clients become collaborators, and where design intent is realised through dialogue, precision and care. Just as Cadence & Co crafts homes that reflect the lives of its clients, the studio is shaped around how its team works best: collaboratively, attentively and always with purpose.
