What are Movable Walls?

Story at a glance:

• Movable walls are partitions that may be moved manually or via motorized tracks to reconfigure interior spaces at a moment’s notice.
• The benefits of movable walls include flexibility, added privacy, increased acoustic control, and aesthetic value.
• Many spaces—from offices and schools to auditoriums and religious buildings—can benefit from the addition of movable walls.

When it comes to ensuring buildings remain relevant over long periods of time, few things are more important than flexible, adaptable interiors—and while there are many ways to build flexibility into a project’s design, movable walls and partitions are among the most effective.

Here we take an in-depth look at movable walls, their benefits, and examples of how and where they may be employed.

What are Movable Walls?

Movable walls are precisely what they sound like: walls that, rather than remain in a fixed position once installed, are capable of being manipulated in some capacity so as to allow for switching between open and divided spaces in response to changing needs.

In recent years movable walls have become integral components of modern interior design, offering architects an extremely effective means of managing space efficiently and ensuring both short- and long-term adaptability.

Generally speaking there are three basic ways to configure movable walls:

• Single panel. Contrary to what the name suggests, single panel movable wall systems consist of multiple panels, each of which is able to move independently on a track; from a design standpoint, single panel systems offer the highest degree of flexibility and support a wider array of room layouts.
• Paired panel. In a paired system panels are hinged in pairs and engineered to move linearly along a track.
• Continuously hinged. In continuously hinged movable wall systems, all panels are connected to one another in a train via hinges, folding accordion-style.

Beyond these base configurations there is no standardized way in which movable walls are designed; many movable wall systems are highly customizable, with manufacturers offering a variety of materials (e.g. steel, glass, wood veneer, fabric panels, et cetera), finishes, styles, and add-ons to suit any project.

Movable walls may, for example, be outfitted with pass doors and pocket doors to further improve functionality and make them less noticeable, or they may be adorned with bright colors and graphics, effectively turning them into intentional focal points or statement pieces.

Benefits of Movable Walls

Given their rise in popularity over recent years, it should come as no surprise that movable walls offer many benefits wherever they are installed, including:

Flexibility & Adaptability

One of the more obvious benefits associated with movable walls is the flexibility they provide when it comes to a building’s layout and design, particularly when compared to traditional walls. Movable walls allow for an open floorplan that, when necessary, may be easily reconfigured in accordance with occupants’ current needs, eliminating the need for single-function rooms and improving overall efficiency of space.

This flexibility in turn makes buildings themselves more adaptable to revolving interior design trends and changes in ownership, allowing them to evolve and retain their relevance regardless of what the future holds.

“If an organization can evolve conference spaces into amenity spaces or flex the number of workstations they need month-to-month, then they are inherently more ready for the future,” Peter McCarthy, principal and commercial leader at CannonDesign—a top architecture firm with nearly 1,300 employees across 18 offices—told gb&d in a previous publication.

Acoustic Control

All movable walls offer some level of acoustic control by simple virtue of being solid partitions, but there is also an entire subset of movable walls engineered specifically with acoustics in mind. These walls are typically made from some sort of sound absorbing material like cotton, open-cell foam, or, in the case of Arktura’s acoustic partitions, the incredibly effective proprietary material Soft Sound, made from 100%-PET plastic.

Arktura is one of North America’s leading providers of sustainable acoustic solutions, offering a range of products suitable for commercial spaces. All of Arktura’s SoftScreen partitions, for example, are made with Soft Sound and can be mounted on sliding tracks to divide spaces when necessary, providing varying levels of acoustic control depending on whether the client chooses a solid, half, or full pattern design.

Modern acoustics technology allows even glass movable walls to act as an effective acoustic solution. Modernfold’s—a top producer of operable walls—Acousti-Clear Glass Wall, for example, is designed with sleek aluminum and glass with industry leading 51 STC sound separation.

Added Privacy

Movable walls can also provide privacy at a moment’s notice when necessary, allowing communal open spaces to be transformed into intimate gathering places for meetings, conferences, and the like.

“Partitions make it easy to divide and define spaces, create calm semi-enclosed spaces that limit direct air currents, and provide comfort, privacy, and safety tools,” Brice Corder, project development and brand manager for Arktura, previously wrote for gb&dPRO.

This is especially true of those movable walls designed as acoustic dampeners, as they help prevent voices and other sounds from being heard from the outside.

Improved Daylighting

While not necessarily true of all movable wall systems, movable walls made from glass panels can help maximize daylighting by allowing natural sunlight to penetrate deeper into a building, illuminating rooms closer to the building’s center.

“More and more there’s pressure to open office spaces up on the interior and pull light deeper and deeper into the building, and our glass wall portfolio can help with that,” Bryan Welch, managing director at Modernfold, previously told gb&d.

This was one of the reasons national law firm Buchalter reached out to Modernfold when renovating portions of its Portland office, whose expansive windows offer sweeping views of the city skyline. To ensure that all occupants could enjoy these views and receive the benefits of daylighting, they chose Modernfold’s glass-paneled Pureview Plus horizontal rail system—a transparent, intuitive, and easy-to-use movable wall solution.

Energy Efficiency

Perhaps surprisingly, movable walls and partitions can also help improve a building’s energy efficiency as well. Glass movable walls do this by improving a building’s daylighting capabilities and reducing artificial lighting loads, while movable walls in general can help to reduce heating and cooling loads by creating defined HVAC zones.

When certain zones are unoccupied, the walls may be drawn and the section closed off, eliminating the need to heat or air-condition that specific room. “This helps lower your CO2 load because now you have a smaller space to heat or cool more efficiently,” says Welch.

Types of Movable Walls

There are two base categories into which movable walls may be classified: manual and operable.

Manual

Manual movable walls describe those walls and partitions moved by hand—typically by sliding them along a track—without the aid of electronics or automation technology. Depending on the system, the movable wall may be designed to retract into a recessed wall cavity when not in use, effectively concealing it from view.

KLEIN is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of manual sliding door and wall systems; the company has supplied movable wall solutions for a range of projects, including PPMT Forward Thinking Healthcare Architecture’s Barcelona headquarters. KLEIN’s transparent and wood-framed glass panels, wood and glass sliding doors, and other features were installed throughout the space in order to maximize flexibility and accommodate mixed spatial organizational flows.

“The biggest challenge was figuring out how to adapt the space to our business model, which is centered around encouraging collective intelligence and innovation processes, and how to make sure the office truly reflected our values,” Patricio Martinez, CEO of PPMT, told gb&d in a previous article. “The sliding tracks allow us to play with a large work area, shared by the whole team, and a set of defined-use spaces that support team members’ different needs, depending on the circumstances.”

PPMT even mounted four large whiteboard panels on KLEIN’s sliding tracks in their office’s Brainstorming Room; the boards stack up on one wall and can be used as a writing area or idea board. Another large sliding panel sits perpendicular to the others and acts as a door, though it can also be written on if more space is required.

Operable

Operable movable walls, on the other hand, describe those walls which may be automatically opened or closed at the press of a button, removing the need for workers to manually move partitions.

“Automation is going to support that need for flexibility because the space is going to be transformed so quickly,” Welch says.

Operable movable walls may be further separated into two types: horizontal and vertical.

Horizontal

As the name suggests, horizontal operable walls move back and forth from side to side on motorized tracks. Like manual movable walls, horizontal motorized walls are typically designed to retract into concealed pockets in a building’s conventional walls when not in use. Modernfold is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of horizontal operable wall systems and offers a variety of products suitable for a range of commercial and residential projects.

The company’s Acousti-Clear Glass Walls product line, for example, is one of their most popular and comes in motorized, automated, and demountable options. The system’s glass walls allow rooms to make effective use of daylight for illumination and can be equipped with blinds, roller shades, or even Modernfold’s MorphGlas technology—which turns the clear panels opaque at the push of a button—for increased privacy.

Vertical

There are also mechanical wall systems that operate from the top down. Skyfold is a leading manufacturer of such systems, offering a range of vertical folding retractable walls that disappear into the ceiling at the push of a button.

“It can be deployed quickly, easily, and safely with very minimum effort,” Alastair Cush, managing director at Skyfold, previously told gb&d. “Its most obvious use case is that a meeting room can be divided into small meeting rooms within minutes without any labor. It allows for more dynamic management of space and probably a more efficient and profitable use of space.”

Where are Movable Walls Used?

While they are often associated with commercial workspaces, movable walls and partitions can be used in a myriad of spaces, including:

Offices

As perhaps the most likely place to find movable walls in the modern age, offices can greatly benefit from the addition of movable walls, as they are key to designing flexible spaces. “Movable walls are fundamental to creating a dynamic, flexible workspace,” Welch says.

This is because movable walls allow offices to capitalize on the benefits of open layouts—an extremely popular trend in contemporary office design—while still allowing for the creation of defined zones when necessary. In doing so, movable walls can help counteract the so-called “open office fatigue,” or the phenomena by which workers actually become more stressed and less productive when faced with an open office layout, typically as a result of increased distractions.

This can be mitigated without sacrificing flexibility in the process through the addition of movable walls. “Combatting open office fatigue can be as simple as adding temporary, movable, or even half-filled acoustic partitions,” writes Corder.

Schools & Universities

Movable walls can be incredibly useful in K-12 schools and higher education facilities, especially in large spaces like libraries, gymnasiums, and cafeterias that may double as event/activity spaces. Movable walls can also be beneficial in schools that experience a high degree of fluctuation in student numbers, as they can allow larger spaces to be converted into multiple classrooms if necessary.

The Child Care Center in Paraguay, for example, uses movable glass walls to help provide students with a greater connection to the natural world. Each of the building’s classrooms is open to the outdoors on two sides, allowing sunlight and fresh air to enter throughout the day.

“We wanted children to be in contact with nature and natural materials at all times,” Horacio Cherniavsky, a founding member of Equipo de Arquitectura—the firm that designed the project—previously told gb&d. “We did not want to create the typical classroom where you feel you are inside a closed space.”

During inclement weather the sliding glass walls may be drawn shut, offering protection without obscuring views of the surrounding landscape.

Auditoriums & Conference Halls

Auditoriums, conference halls, and other spaces that might host multiple events at the same time can also benefit from the addition of movable walls and the flexibility they offer.

A Moscow SAP Leonardo Center, for example, utilized Skyfold’s vertical operable walls to provide the flexibility necessary to hold public events like conferences as well as meetings and tech negotiations. “Our project has become the eighth SAP Leonardo Center in the world, but nowhere else is there such a number of functions and such flexible space as Moscow SAP,” Nikolay Milovidov, managing partner of the architectural bureau UNK PROJECT, told gb&d in a previous article.

“We have created both a large conference hall with developed lobbies and an exhibition hall, while we have equipped zones for design thinking, D-Shop, meeting rooms. There is no center in the whole world where all these elements are present at the same time. The uniqueness of the Moscow project lies in the fact that all components of the hub can operate in parallel and completely independently of each other.”

Religious Institutions

Many churches and other religious institutions perform double duty, acting both as places of worship and unofficial community centers. Movable walls, then, can help streamline the transformation of large worship and event spaces into smaller, more intimate rooms for counseling sessions, club meetings, and the like.