Architect: YAMAMAR Design, Location: San Francisco, California

Tasked with creating a multi-use guest pavilion on a relatively small Northern California vineyard lot that could also host sit down dinners for up to 60 people, designers at Anderson Architects started by asking the key questions: “Where should it be within the property?” “How much floor area do we need for a 60 person dinner?” “How much volume do we need for a basketball court?” “We also always tell ourselves to look at the landscape first, let it dominate and lead it through. The building took the form of a large Napa Valley barn.

Walsh and Strongin's living room strikes a more rustic note.

The master bedroom in Holden Shannon’s unit in Houston’s Row on 25th development features a Nook bed from Blu Dot, a pair of Base table lights by Tom Dixon, and a painting by artist Elva Stewart.

The dresser at the other end of the bedroom is by Paul Frankl; the plywood lounge chair is by Ib Kofod-Larsen; and the huge cork-based floor lamp is from Reeves Antiques.

A pair of mid-century perches by Kofod-Larsen sit beneath a print by Andy Warhol in an upstairs bedroom.

Cabin at Longbranch | Olson Kundig

Noise-canceling headphones work by producing sound waves that are 180 degrees out of phase with ambient sound waves, like those coming from airplane engines or air conditioners. Basically, the sounds meet and cancel each other out to produce silence, so only the music can be heard.

The newest version is the QuietComfort 25. They’re a mix of the brand's classic aesthetic and new technology. Hardware updates to the preceding QC 15 including noise regulation that Bose says reduces the “hiss” sometimes associated with noise-canceling headphones.

With a minimal and understated look, this floating staircase and landing design evokes a less-is-more philosophy and architectural style. Architect Carlo Gaspari converted a former knife-making workshop in Abruzzo, Italy, into a sophisticated residential property. The design pays homage to the home’s name—Casa del Ferro (the Iron House)—by using iron within the interior design, such as the staircase.

The surrounding green landscape transitions into the interiors

The legend behind the headphones' creation is that founder Amar Bose was dissatisfied with the airline-issue headphones provided on a flight he took in 1978. However apocryphal, he is said to have written down calculations before landing, and those plans led to the first noise-canceling headphones that came out years later.

The Bose QC 25s are “over-ear” headphones, which mean they entirely surround the ear with padding to block out as much noise as possible. Some people find them cumbersome when worn for extended periods, but the padding on the top band keeps them from feeling heavy.

The interior of 25 Lusk, designed by Cass Calder Smith.

It’s been over 20 years since Bose invented noise-cancelling headphones, and in that time they’ve updated their lineup’s aesthetics and hardware, including adding an in-ear model. Despite imitation by dozens of other manufacturers, usually for cheaper, Bose’s headphones remain the best at blocking out white noise like airplane engines or air conditioners, so you can enjoy music or a movie.

This 2'5" by 3'3" rug is an improvised interpretation of crazy quilt designs.

Managing 25 bundles of rope per bay. Photo by Clifford Ho.

The only downside to the Bose lineup is that in a realm of extraordinary machines, the Bose’s sound isn’t as magnificent as that produced by other models like the PSB M4U 2, or the wireless Parrot Zik. Cheaper models like those from Audio-Technica can be over $100 cheaper than the Bose, but none of them come close to the original brand’s ability to filter out unwanted noise.

Segments [installation of 25 pieces], oil and enamel on pine, by Frederick Lynch

Primo shelving system.

There are eight shirts in all, and at $25 are certainly a bargain. Here are three by McGee, Snows and Johanson.

Homes here start at $2.5 million, with ones surrounding the wave pool, like these, asking closer to $6 million.

The house sits on 1.25 acres of land and has a deck that connects the interiors with the outdoors throughout the property. Little points out, “Some of the old-growth redwood he used has up to 25 growth rings in a single inch!”

A 25-foot custom bifold door made of corrugated plastic and twin-wall polycarbonate encloses an artist’s studio designed by Marc Frohn of FAR frohn&rojas.

“I wanted to bring in a little bit of apricot to nod to the name of the studio,” says Troup of the $25 USD orange velvet curtain he hung as a space divider.

Designed by Stockholm firm Waldemarson Berglund Arkitekter, this prefab artist studio called Ateljé 25 is shaped like a Monopoly house, serves as an artist’s studio and has simple plywood interiors and massive skylights.

Cabo Real Surf Club in southern Baja is selling homes starting at $2.5 million, with ones surrounding the wave pool asking closer to $6 million.

Rustic, Scandinavian-style The Hut, in Ohio, is a true family affair; the sustainable cabin, covered in cedar shingles, was built by architect Greg Dutton and his brother and father. Inside, views are amplified through a 25-foot wall of floor-to-ceiling windows.

Built of durable and easy-to-clean composite materials, Pallet Shelter’s aluminum-framed prefab homes are fitted with insulation and rated for 110 mile-per-hour winds and 25 pound-per-square-foot snow loads.

The Island House is set on a 1.2-acre plot of land in Nordelta, about 25 miles outside of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Fabrication drawings showing the exact shape of each profile and how it sits on the grid. There are 25 profiles in total.

An illustration of 25 New Yorkers by Maria (Walnut) Nogueira.