Brown Office

Client: R for Repair
Commissioners: Jane Withers Studio & Hans Tan
Project Partner: Design Singapore
Location: Victoria & Albert Museum
Photography: Zuketa Film Production
Exhibition Design: Nice Projects
Date: September 2022

Upon the invitation of Jane Withers Studio, Hans Tan and Design Singapore, Brown Office were invited to participate in the second edition of ‘R for Repair’ inviting designers from the UK and Singapore to repair adored but damaged objects donated by members of the public. The exhibition takes place during London Design Festival 2022 at the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Brown Office were tasked with repairing a rather charming but time-worn Winnie-the-Pooh Clock, owned by the Yip Sisters, based in Singapore. Our approach to creative repair was framed by our appreciation of the clock's international credentials.

A clock created by the Walt Disney Company, based on a British cartoon character, manufactured in China, assembled in Thailand, and presented by a Japanese businessman to the Yip Sisters in Singapore (as a family housewarming gift) can be considered a truly global artefact. As well as reinstating the clocks basic functionality our approach to creative repair was to deconstruct the product components and introduce two extra clock movements, enabling the product to not only display local time in Singapore, but also indicate related time in Burbank, California and ‘100 acre wood’ East Sussex - the home of Walt Disney and Winnie-the-Pooh respectively. In doing so we emphasised the world-wide narrative that brought this curious object into existence.

The re-design sees the clock stripped back to its essential parts and recomposed in a taller narrower ‘grandfather clock’ profile, mounted onto a powder coated aluminium panel. Such an adaptation not only makes space for two extra clock and pendulum movements - more importantly it also accentuates the products natural charm - allowing Tiger, Eeyore, Piglet and Pooh to all make some moves at the Victoria & Albert Museum and beyond.