House O, designed by Jun Igarashi, forgoes hallways and interior doors in favor of casually interconnected rooms.

Sleeping nooks that look like the grooves in a block of cheese.

Top 11

A passage between the walls for hide and seek.

The addition’s two stories of cedar-framed sliding doors and window provide generous views of the house’s prized jacaranda tree. The addition’s polished concrete floor and white cladding extend into the garden, drawing occupants to the serene rear porch. There, they can relax on stools designed by Alvar Aalto and Charles Wilson while admiring the luscious greenery.

O'Neill Rose Architects designed each unit of this modern Queens compound based on the personality of the family member occupying it. The kitchen in the brother’s unit is bright and fun with a backsplash made of painted glass. The light fixtures, like many other materials found in the project, were left over from the client’s contracting work; O’Neill Rose bent the found pipes into an array of angles and attached light bulbs.

In this home in Queens, NYC, O’Neill Rose Architects designed a fun sky blue island and backsplash made of painted glass.

Situated on a sloped-site, each renovated space provides a unique perspective and vista to the dramatic natural surroundings. The office, with its stark modern furnishings and subtle artwork, allows the large window to serve as perhaps the most dramatic, singular frame to the foliage beyond.

Gentleman's Valet by Soren Rose Studio, $1,795 from mattermatters.comIn a previous issue of Dwell, we called the Hans Wegner Valet chair from 1953 "the manliest chair of the 20th century." If you can't scour vintage shops to find one, Soren Rose makes a modern interpretation. It offers compartments to store keys, change, wallets, watches, and all the other items that men need to go about their daily lives. Best of all, the rack offers places to leave shoes and hang coats, pants, and ties.

At Erik Rydingsvärd’s renovated triplex, Rose Maura Lorre became enamored with the outdoor entertaining space and a rooftop sauna. “The way they were executed—especially the sauna oriented to face Mount Royal—was fantastic,” she says. Lorre, a Montreal resident since 2011, has written for the New York Times and Salon.

The Rose Bowl A national historic landmark, the Rose Bowl in Pasadena has played host to America’s first–and most famous–postseason college football game for every year but one since 1923. The stadium features more than 100 different varieties of rose bushes situated on its grounds and 77 rows of seats open to the Southern California sunshine. Photo by: Peter Bennett