Muyuan Lyu

Waverly Abbey is located in Farnham. In the 12th century, Waverley had 14 farms which included valuable stocks of sheep. But now there are also many farms around Farnham. This reminds me that sheep produce wool and wool can make soft animals. So I wanted to design a Teddy Bear repairing workshop.

When broken bears all arrive in various states of decomposition; missing legs, arms, heads, and so on, my job is to “re-composition”. Therefore, my project is named Re-composition.

Based on the process of repairing a teddy bear, I have chosen three keywords, “Decomposed”, “Intersection” and”Care”.

“Decomposed” means Teddies lost legs or arms or eyes etc. They lost life and died. “Intersection” can mean a point at which 2 objects meet. So, where a leg is re-attached to a body could be described as an intersection. “Care” means dressing bear will protect the covered parts from colour fade.

So, I divided three main areas.

Entrance: This is in the Decomposed area. In here, I chose dark green, dark blue, and dark timber as materials. The broken structure represents the decomposed, which means teddies are broken.

There is a bench, customers can sit and wait here. The workshop only holds 4 customers.

Cleaning area: This is also in the Decomposed area. I used the same materials and colours as the Entrance. 4 water butts are provided for customers to use. The water pipe is connected to the roof to the floor. The water comes from the river behind the site.

Opposite the water butt is a poster wall, it tells customers how to soft clean teddies.

Repairing area: This is in the Intersection area. In this area, the staff teaches customers how to repair face-to-face. Each staff teaches two customers. Customers can get some materials on the left or right wall.

The low ceiling represents the sitting. I used colourful fabric to represent teddies feeling very excited because they will have new life.

Dressing area: This is in the Care area. In this area, customers do some dressing of the teddies to protect them and prevent fading. The chair connects with a long table and a long shelf. Customers can easily get the clothes or other tools from the long shelf.

The low ceiling is very simple. From the highest height to the lowest, it represents teddies’ emotions from excited to relaxed, because the host did not give up them.

Finally, customers finish all steps and take their teddies back home.