Design Factors for Office Partitions

Partition Basics

• Office partitions, by definition, divide an open space into smaller areas. Partitions can range from prefabricated or modular systems to site built or custom partitions. As simple or as elaborate as they can be, they share this function. Partitions can range from furniture to solid masonry walls depending on the requirements of the space in your office building.

Acoustics

• Your office environment may have acoustic demands that a partition can address. Physical or audible noise and vibration from the outside or within the building, such as trains or traffic, or from office or other equipment, may be reduced with a permanent partition extending from the floor deck to the ceiling or roof structure above. A meeting or conference room may take advantage of sound absorption panels as part of their partitions to keep meetings focused. Larger spaces, like halls or lobbies, may use the acoustic properties of partitions to prevent echoes. Assembly or religious space planners in particular use moving partitions to tailor the space to the size of the audience.

Structural Stability

• Physical stability may be designed into a partition. Some office environments include displays of artwork or products, which a partition must physically support, whether temporarily or permanently. The frame or structure behind the finished surface of the partition does the work of supporting the artwork. Rolling partitions may be equipped with locking wheels or casters and may have to be balanced to prevent tipping over. Steelcase manufactures a modular partition system equipped with levelers with design selections, including cabinetry and desktops. These prefabricated configurations may permit for asymmetry, depending on loading.

Transparency

• Partitions can vary in visual transparency. Light-sensitive applications may require dropcloths or drapes to function as partitions. Visual privacy, such as in dressing rooms, may be accomplished with curtains. Glazing can be used to vary the transparency of a partition, ranging from opaque to translucent to completely transparent. Some restaurants, for example, use transparent glass partitions to divide the space between rows of booths. They allow for a complete view of the space while serving to provide a physical barrier between the sections.

Patterns

• Partitions, or any large field, can display a pattern to lend interest or communicate a theme. Partitions can function as a canvas for posters or a corporate logo or identity. Galleries and museums use partitions to generate a path. Along with displays, partitions can be a neutral background for continuity or can be grouped thematically by color, shape or display content. Patterns also can divide a space on several levels, such as by suggesting a line. An example of this could be a series of panels parallel to a wall separated from each other by a few inches. Air and sound would pass through while the spacing restricts the movement of people.