The relationship between architecture and its environment has traditionally been given special emphasis in Japanese architecture. It has influenced contemporary architects in America since Frank Lloyd Wright incorporated elements from Japanese design into his work.

Characterized by flowing open spaces that stressed livability and flexibility beneath low-pitched, horizontal, sheltering roofs, Wright’s houses displayed characteristics of the Japanese streamline style and offered design precedents for a particularly American type of architecture — the ranch house.

Defined by its livable unpretentiousness, the informal demeanor of the ranch-style house found among these pages spoke directly to the homeowners’ ideas of leisure and modernity. It didn’t hurt that the house also had “great karma,” says the owner. With its low-sloping stance and roofline designed to bring the outside in, the ranch, in the hands of a sensitive design team, could be made to fit naturally and comfortably into the landscape.

Architect John Kosich and interior designer Connie Buckner — both of San Francisco — re-imagined the ranch as a perfect integration of interior and exterior. Maintaining the home’s classic U-shaped footprint, large sill-less windows bring in light and nature and help integrate the patio, which serves as an extension of the living space. Sliding glass doors retract into adjoining walls and allow a functional relationship with the outdoors to create a casual living style. Like its Japanese counterparts, rooms face the exterior — toward the garden — and serve as the visual “frame” that displays natural scenery to guests.

“We all agreed that the view of the back garden needed to be visible from the front door,” Buckner explains. This new perspective was embraced by replacing a wall in the entry hall with a louvered screen that gave the home an immediate “sense of place.”

Likewise, the homeowners requested a similar view of the back garden from the kitchen, which was relocated and outfitted with low-profile cabinetry to create openness.

“We wanted to always have a view of the outside,” says the homeowner. “To design a house focused on the landscape.” To this end, the design team eliminated walls, widened steps, and maximized every perspective in the home by the use of proportions, light, and lightweight materials. The result? “Breathing space,” she says. “We increased the volume of the house without changing the square footage.” This spirit of openess also informed the designers when they decided to relocate the pool at the edge of the patio where it acted as a barrier to the backyard.

“We all agreed that the extra-deep lot needed to be a focal point so [the original] swimming pool was filled in and the new one of more contemporary lines was placed at the back of the property along with the new guesthouse,” Buckner says. With a spacious blank canvas between the patio and the pool, the homeowners turned to landscape designer John Emerson of Louisiana to prepare a planting plan that would complement the home. It was Alton Goode of Goode’s Nursery in Kernersville, though, that “babied the backyard” and provided the local knowledge for the best tree and plant species for the site.

“He’s a Bodhisattva on the road to enlightenment,” say the homeowners of Goode. Throughout the property, Goode planted Japanese maples, pruned dwarf evergreens to mimic bonsai, and decorated with bamboo in large planters — the perfect accompaniments to a home filled with Asian artifacts and treasures of a well-traveled family.

“Basically,” Buckner says, “our intention was to honor the mid-20th-century architecture of this house while at the same time introducing aspects of the 21st-century. I believe everyone involved in the project feels this was achieved in this functional and warm home created for this very active family.”

Truly, the home draws little attention to itself, seemingly free of ego as simple, lean lines are intent on not dominating the neighborhood. Sitting on a cul-de-sac with a low-profile, the home is quiet in its magnificence, with a rich inner life just inside the front door.