Clients turned to architect Randall Kipp to design a modern abode for them in Virginia’s Northern Neck. With the property’s picturesque location on a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay, the owners specified a house with “a lot of transparency,” says Kipp. “They wanted it to flow inside and out.”

The architect designed a two-bedroom, single-story structure in which every room takes advantage of the minimalist, Asian-inspired landscape conceived by ZEN Associates—and, of course, the stunning water views that extend out beyond the backyard. One wing of the house contains a master suite where the spare and serene bedroom (pictured) spills out onto the patio through sliding-glass doors framed in warm, honey-hued alder. Concealed in the wall, solar, insect and blackout screens make indoor-outdoor living easy.

Kipp designed a built-in maple bedstead and attached nightstands for the space; they complement a wall of open shelving fabricated from maple by the Woodworking Shop.

Architecture: Randall J. Kipp, AIA, NCARB, Randall Kipp Architecture, Irvington, Virginia. Interior Design: Rina Okawa, LEED AP; Landscape Architecture: Shinichiro Abe, ZEN Associates, Inc., Woburn, Massachusetts and Silver Spring, Maryland. Builder: Joe Allen, The Allen Group, Inc., Urbanna, Virginia.