Dublin-based designer Cara Campos turns abandoned bicycles into sleekly minimal furniture pieces

Born and raised in the Middle East to a French father and an Irish mother, Cara Campos says she spent her formative years ‘swimming in a Long Island iced tea of cultural influences’.

She had a peripatetic childhood before eventually returning to Ireland in her early 20s to initially study fashion design, then changing course to industrial design, graduating in 2025. Now based in Dublin, her approach is rooted in sustainability and adaptability as she explores the potential of all materials to be reimagined or pushed to their limits.

The pieces in her recent ‘Objects from Frames’ collection, which began as a university project, are formed from abandoned bicycle parts. ‘I was fascinated by the abandoned bicycles I kept seeing in different cities, and it made me curious if I could do something with them in Dublin,' she says. 'The bicycle is often called one of humanity’s greatest inventions – American writer William Saroyan even called it “the noblest invention of mankind".'

Campos' project explores the structural and adaptive potential of components and manmade forms, taking the familiar shape of the bicycle in heavily used or end-of-life condition and asking it to perform a new function in the domestic environment.

'I find bicycle frames are fascinating because they’re so precisely engineered, yet once they’re no longer functional, they’re often just discarded. Using them in my designs felt like a way to give them a new identity. Plus, their shapes naturally lend themselves to furniture forms, which made the whole process feel really intuitive and playful.’

The final pieces – a chair, table and lamp – display an honest physicality and do not hide their former function. Campos now has other projects in the pipeline, and is not immune to collaboration, citing Eileen Gray if she were still alive, or Josefin Zachrisson and Mira Bergh, aka artist duo Swedish Girls, and Andu Masebo as dream allies. As a very recent graduate, she's still carefully considering what avenues to explore, but she is currently looking at a project that, she say, 'would involve more collaboration with craftsmen and women. I'm really excited about that'.