The outdoor living spaces of this NeMo — or New Modern — house in Winter Park, Fla., are hardly afterthoughts. Nor was the house planned merely to accommodate the outdoor living spaces. Rather, the interior and exterior living spaces were conceived as an integral whole.

The outside space was designed into the architecture, explains Phil Kean of Phil Kean Designs in Winter Park, Fla. “I think that outside and inside are extensions of my design; they’re planned from the beginning on how to bring them together in the best way possible.”

For Kean, designing outdoor living space is not about a tacked-on deck or porch. “It’s a whole process in which we design walls of glass that disappear into the walls of the house. Often the floors are the same on the outside and the inside, and we’ll use the same colors on the exterior walls that are brought into the inside walls. Ceilings will be lined up on the inside and the outside,” he says.

The architecture is inspired by the ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s mid-century modern period, Kean says. “It’s as though you interpreted what architects of that period would do with today’s technologies. What might Frank Lloyd Wright have done with Fallingwater if he were doing it today? How would it be different? I tried to interpret the sensibility and the thinking of that period with today, so that is why we call it New Modern instead of modern,” he explains.

The outdoor living space — other than the pool and its surrounding landscaping — is largely contained within the footprint of the main structure, making for a smooth transition between the two living areas.

Further, the outdoor living spaces are defined by the lot and its views and topography. “The site dictates the architecture, and the architecture and the outside space really should be congruous,” Kean says.

A pass-through above the kitchen sink allows the homeowner to feel like he or she is outside, making the kitchen a sort of summer kitchen — even though there are cooking facilities for barbecuing on the porch as well. “It allows you to be in your kitchen and be outside as well,” Kean says. A counter area on the outside of the pass-through allows guests to pull up stools and visit with the person in the kitchen.

“It’s really a nice space — one of people’s favorite features,” he says.