Don’t it always seem to go, as Joni Mitchell once put it, that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. Such is the case with the million-dollar-view as seen from a house in the Slopes neighbourhood on Calgary’s western edge. Designed by graduate architect Ryan Scarff—a Calgary native who returned home in 2003 after working for a firm in Chicago during his university years—the 4,000-square-foot house was built upon the premise that to truly appreciate a beautiful view, you’ve first got to lose it.

What makes this house remarkable (aside from its clean-lined, flat-roofed exterior that sits in stark contrast to the more typical suburban digs that flank it) is the unique interplay between indoors and out, an effect achieved in part by meticulously placed outdoor rooms in front and back, each with a strategic perspective of the surroundings. “The owners didn’t just want a house with a view,” Scarff explains. “In a way, the view is underappreciated in this neighbourhood because you see the mountains for a long time as you drive up to it. We wanted to take that view away before you enter the house, then give it back in a framed way.”

With that in mind, Scarff placed the front entrance to the house, which is nestled into its sloping lot and cantilevered toward the western view, into a sunken courtyard that also serves as an intimate outdoor room—perfect for early morning coffee when the sun is in the east. “When you arrive you leave the mountain view in that entry court,” says Scarff.

Visitors move from no view at all in the enclosed courtyard to a formalized, narrow view of the mountains as seen through the windows on either side of the front door. Then, once you walk into the house, the view becomes panoramic once again. An entire wall of 11-foot-high windows faces west toward the Rockies, dominating the main floor of the home from the loft-like kitchen/living room area.

As Scarff explains, it’s that “procession” from compressed space to huge, open space that makes the line from indoor to out both dramatic yet seamless. “The different cubic volumes of the house help you explore the views in different ways by screening, framing, expanding and ultimately celebrating the views.” Likewise, while the rooms on the east side of the house have a relatively “tight, cellular feel” (the gym, office and bathroom on the main floor) once you walk back out into the living room, “you feel as if you go from being tucked into the earth to floating above it.”

The scale of the outdoor room located on the northwesterly corner of the house further highlights the seamless transition from indoors to out: it was designed as a mirror image of the living room it sits adjacent to. From the kitchen, the homeowners can see both rooms as mirror images of each other—each features a large, square area dominated by a fireplace. “The living room is like a covered patio,” says Scarff, “and the patio is an open, exposed living room.” Even when you’re inside, he says, “the weather outside makes itself known as light moves and tracks through the interior spaces.”

The furniture in the outdoor room is a weather-resistant version of what’s inside: a dark, square modern sofa and chairs form a u-shape around the fireplace. Garden boxes filled with tall Prairie grass and a few hardy plants such as geraniums serve to both soften the architectural lines of the space and form a harmonious bridge between the outdoor room and the natural environment surrounding it.

Still, when one of the goals of a home’s design is a seamless transition between indoors and out, negotiating the fine line between public and private space sometimes requires minor adjustments. When the homeowner pulled into her new driveway just as finishing touches were being made to the ensuite bathroom, whose nine-foot windows face the road, she experienced first-hand the kind of, um, view her future neighbours might have been privy to. “I was pretty surprised to discover that I could clearly see the plumber through the frosted glass,” she says with a laugh. “He was completing the shower, which is right in front of the window, and I could see exactly what colour overalls he was wearing.” She had the window people on the phone before she even got through her front door. “They came back and installed two extra layers of film frosting.”

Wonder if her neighbours know what they lost.

SOURCES Architect, Ryan Scarff Studio, 403-454-3348. Small planter boxes behind couch, Urban Barn, Calgary, 403-270-7129; Edmonton, 780-485-0503; Victoria, 250-360-9067; Winnipeg, 204-452-2102; Saskatoon, 306-933-9770; urbanbarn.com. Sofa, chairs, coffee table, Caneline, Ginger Jar Casual Living, North Vancouver, 604-988-2789, gingerjarinteriors.com; Chintz & Company, Victoria, 250-381-2022; Calgary, 403-245-3449; Edmonton, 780-428-8181; chintz.com. Custom pillows, Rowland Custom Upholstery, Calgary, 403-243-6996, rowlandcustomupholstery.com. Fireplace, Montigo H-Series, ventless gas fireplace, Hearth Fireplace Depot, Calgary, 403-508-5000, hearthfireplacedepot.com; EMCO, Victoria, 250-475-6272, Vancouver, 604-872-337; Regina, 306-569-9621; Saskatoon, 306-652-7474; Winnipeg, 204-925-8717. Planter boxes flanking fireplace, Manhattan Collection window boxes, Unique Floral Boutique, Calgary, 403-262-1383, uniquefloralboutique.com. Light sconce, Hinkley, Carrington Lighting, Calgary, 403-264-5483, carringtonlighting.com.