A team of Squire & Partners architects and designers, including our in-house clothing and textile designer Isabel Fletcher, collaborated to produce free PPE resources for South London NHS hospitals during the COVID-19 crisis, with weekly outputs of 120 visor headbands and sets of scrubs with customised patterned pockets and messages of support to frontline workers.

'We asked ourselves, what can we do to help? We can all say thank you, we can all use our skills. Squire & Partners’ One Love NHS project provides essential PPE with an extra dose of love and appreciation for NHS frontline workers through the joy of design and making.

'It goes beyond the necessary and the uniform to create warmth and appreciation of human care at a time when we’re all physically far apart.'

The practice’s modelshop team – including in-house textile designer Isabel Fletcher – are creating sets of scrubs to order for local hospitals.

The scheme is part of a collective effort organised by the South London and Croydon branches of For the Love of Scrubs, who have supplied over 1,000 sets of scrubs to local NHS hospitals.

In addition, Squire & Partners is providing For the Love of Scrubs a free print service for scrub patterns in various sizes, also extended locally in Brixton to anyone who requires scrub patterns for making at home.

The process of making the scrubs involved collecting approved fabric which was then washed, dried and cut to shape before sewing, customising and delivering the finished product to a central distribution point.

The two-piece sets are handmade to NHS standards and feature a customised breast pocket using offcuts of bespoke patterned fabrics from The Department Store.

In enhancing the pockets with uplifting patterns, using contrasting thread colours and including messages of support for NHS Heroes, the practice hoped to spread some joy in the wards of local hospitals whilst providing staff with much needed PPE.

Later sets of scrubs have fabric digitally printed with ‘One Love NHS' on the pocket, designed by the practice to send a message to frontline staff that we’re all in this together.

Following approval of their prototype and allocation of a production ID, our modelshop team are creating 120 visor headbands a week for distribution to hospitals, care homes and GP surgeries nationwide.

The headbands, created using recycled PLA with an Ultimaker S5 3D printer, also feature the message of ‘One Love NHS’ by the right ear.

The team deliver a box per week to the distribution centre, as part of the COVID-19 initiative for the NHS organised by The Industry Prints with the National 3D Printing Society.

The headbands have visor screens added before being sterilised and distributed.