Room Dividers

"Room Dividers" are used by interior designers and architects as means to divide space into separate distinct areas. Room Dividers are made from a large array of materials limited by the designer's or architect's creativity. Due to this creativity, there are a number of different types of Room Divider such as portable room dividers, cubicles, pipe and drape, and shoji screens in a variety of locations.

"A portable room divider includes a plurality of folded wall panels positioned between a pair of end members with wheels." as described by Paul Maas, Screenflex Room Dividers Inventor.

How are Room Dividers Used?

Room Dividers are used in two major ways:

# Room Dividers are used to divide rooms, creating a more efficient use of the space within the room.
# Room Dividers are used as decorators and/or accent pieces to add character to room space.

Where are Room Dividers Used?

Room Dividers are commonly used in:

* Residences
* Schools of all levels
* Hotels/Restaurants
* Office Cubicles
* Government/Corporate offices
* Churches/Houses of Worship

How are Room Dividers used in each of the different environments?

Residences:

Houses, and other residences, use a room divider to divide the space more effectively or as a decorating focus point. Most commonly used in the residence is a small room divider, sometimes called a folding Shoji screen. Shoji Screens are usually tri-fold walls. A shoji screen may also be used to section off part of a bedroom or family room as an office. [Berner, Jeff: "The Joy of Working from Home", page 27. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 1994.]

Residences can often use creative freedom with room dividers. Plants [Chiara, Joseph De, Panero, Julius, Zelnik, Martin: "Time-saver Standards for Interior Design and Space Planning", page 1353. McGraw-Hill Professional, 2001.] , Bookshelves [Petrowski, Elaine Martin: "Design Ideas for Home Storage", page 92. Creative Homeowner, 2006.] , Railings [Jefferis, Alan, Madsen, David A.: "Architectural Drafting and Design", page 479. Thomson Delmar Learning, 2004.] , Fireplaces [Stickels, Karen, Walker, Jessie: "Design Ideas for Fireplaces", page 132. Creative Homeowner, 2007.] , Light Fixtures, and Drapes have all been used to effectively create distinct spaces in individuals apartments and homes.

Schools:

In schools, Room Dividers primarily are used to create temporary classrooms for education in large open rooms, such as libraries, media centers, cafeterias or gymnasiums. Since the rooms were designed originally to be open for other purposes, the most common type of Room Divider is a Portable Room Divider on casters which can easily be moved from place to place. After class, the Room Divider is rolled back into its storage area for future use.

Another method Room Dividers are used in schools is to create testing areas with privacy for concentration of students. [Marilyn Pierce Dornbush, Sheryl K. Pruitt: "Teaching the Tiger", page 110. Hope Press, 1995.]

Hotels and Restaurants:

Hotels and Restaurants use two different types of room dividers. Commonly, you will see floor-to-ceiling room dividers [Pile, John, F.: "Interior Design", Page 417. H.N. Abrams, 1995.] in Banquet Halls and Meeting spaces. These fixed dividers can be used to divide a banquet room into smaller more quaint facilities. In areas where room dividers need more flexibility, Hotels and Restaurants might use Portable Room Dividers similar to those used in schools.

Corporate Facilities or Office Cubicles:

In offices, room dividers are typically more permanent in nature and attached directly to the floor. These Office Cubicles Room Dividers allow taking a large office space and breaking it into quieter and more focused subdivided offices. [Meel, Juriaan van: "The European Office", Page 81. 010 Publishers, 2000.]

Governmental Facilities:

Room dividers in Governments and Corporate facilities often use Office Cubicles for their staff and employees. However, due to the required flexibility of some Government facilities, Portable Partitions often are used to create backdrops for meeting spaces that take place in Small Government buildings. They often have multiple heights and lengths and are set up in a line. Others have hinges and allow for flexibility of shapes. These hinged Portable Room Dividers can create rooms of virtually any size or shape to make several meeting or training rooms within one large space.

Religious Facilities:

In Religious Facilities, Room Dividers are used to create temporary classrooms for religious education [Williams, Peter W.: "Houses of God", page 121. University of Illinois Press, 2000.] in large open rooms such as fellowship halls, multi-purpose rooms or gymnasiums. Since the rooms were designed originally to be open by nature for large gatherings, the most common type of Room Divider is a Portable Room Divider on casters which can easily be moved from place to place. After class, the Room Divider is rolled back into its storage area for future use.

Convention Centers:

Convention Centers, by their very nature, are large facilities with wide open internal spaces. Consequently, they often need to be broken down into smaller areas. The most common room divider used in convention center is Pipe and Drape [Hoyle, Leonard H., Dorf, David C., Jones, Thomas J. A.: "Managing Conventions and Group Business", page 28. Educational Institute of the American Hotel & Motel Association, 1989.] . In short, a convention center sets up frames made of plastic, metal, or wire tubing. The Convention Center then hangs fabric material over the frame to create back drops and hide other unsightly places in addition to creating multiple subdivided rooms. Some recently build convention centers have used a form of portable Room Dividers on casters and other flexible materials to divide their space.

Other Room Divider Uses:

Room Dividers have been used creatively in many other situations including, but not limited to:

* Privacy for bussing area.
* Security for luggage storage or coat check areas.
* Hide construction debris.
* Use as a backdrop for speakers.
* Mazes and other Fun Areas.
* Creating private areas for donating blood.
* Filling out personal paperwork at public places.
* Voting during elections.
* Queue management.

Who makes different types of Room Dividers?

Portable Room Dividers

* PortablePartitions.com
* Screenflex Room Dividers, Inc.
* Versare Solutions, Inc.

Floor To Ceiling Dividers

* Kwik-Wall, Inc.
* Modern Fold, Inc.
* Hufcor, Inc.

Cubicles

* Kwik-Wall, Inc.
* Modern Fold, Inc.
* Maxon Furniture, Inc.

Shoji Screens

At this time, a list of Shoji Screens companies has not been compiled.

Pipe and Drape

At this time, a list has not been compiled of pipe and drape companies

External links

* [http://www.portablepartitions.com/ PortablePartition.com]
* [http://www.portableblockaids.com/ PortableBlockAids.com]
* [http://www.screenflex.com/ Screenflex Room Dividers, Inc.]
* [http://www.kwik-wall.com/ Kwik-Wall, Inc.]
* [http://www.modernfold.com/ Modern Fold, Inc.]
* [http://www.maxonfurniture.com/ Maxon Furniture, Inc.]
* [http://www.hufcor.com/ Hufcor, Inc.]

Notes

References

* US patent reference
number = 5272848
y = 1993
m = 12
d = 28
inventor = Paul Maas
title = Portable room divider

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