Caroline Williamson

We all seem to covet our time in nature so it's only natural that these outdoor furnishings will make our lives not only easier, but more enjoyable. Even though it's winter now for most, take a swing back through the best of our outdoor finds that will make summer seem not that far off in the future.

In 2007, design students Adnan Alagi?, Bojan Kanli?, and Amila Hrusti?, won a competition to design a pedestrian bridge that linked Academy of Fine Arts and a street in Sarajevo. Five years later, the Festina Lente looping bridge is now complete and spans 38 meters over the river as a gateway to what was a church but is now one of the school's buildings.

3D printing has hit the design field by storm and now it's going to hit your face (um, in a pleasant way, not violent) with Protos 3D Printed Eyewear. The layering 3D process can build a frame that's not only lightweight and durable, but it will make you a really cool pair of shades.

The Bromont Residence is a cabin-like vacation home located in the countryside of Bromont, a city in the southwestern part of Quebec, Canada. Designed by the Montreal-based Blouin Tardif Architecture-Environnement, the cozy home is clad in weathered barn wood giving it a naturally aged appearance.

Swedish furniture and product designer Ola Giertz created the Thread Bench, which looks like metal easily bent and twisted into the finished shape. In actuality, the bars of metal are manually bent by both cold and warm forging, a much more labor-intensive process.

Copenhagen-based designer Ruth Vissing designed a series of typographic posters she calls Pawaiian Hunch. She designed posters featuring a typeface that has a combination retro 80s feel with Art Deco. The entire alphabet is available in various color stories, all of which pop off the page. You know I had to put the "D" & "M" together!

Alberto Apostoli recently designed a new housing complex in Verona, Italy called Residence Santa Caterina, whose aim is to create a community for the residents where they'd like to take a walk through.

The often-ignored computer bag finally gets an update in the form of Phorce, dubbed the world's first smart bag. The bag not only converts from a messenger bag to a backpack to a briefcase, it can also charge your devices!

The Netherlands-based design firm springtime has come up with a concept for outdoor speakers called OWL: Outdoor Wireless Listening. The wireless speakers are battery powered and equipped with Bluetooth technology so you can connect to your music.

Remember when we featured the Curl Tables by Constanze Schweda earlier this year? They're back with three new pieces that were also inspired by Kirigami (a type of Japanese origami) and have a similar feel to the Curl Tables.

Surrounded by 400 olive trees in the southern part of Portugal, the House in Tavira was designed by Vitor Vilhena Architects. The residence now consists of an existing structure and a new one that are connected via a glass hallway.

Remember when your desk accessories consisted of sticking your pens and pencils in an old coffee mug? Thank goodness those days are over and designers like Héctor Serrano have come out with great desk-worthy options like Desktructure for Seletti.