How Movable Partitions Unlock More From Your Office Floorplate
In a world where headcount, work patterns and technology evolve faster than lease cycles, workplaces have to work harder. Modular partitions such as operable walls, sliding panels and acoustic curtain systems are one of the simplest ways to add adaptability without adding space. Combined with other movable elements across furniture and fittings, they let teams shape rooms to suit the moment, delivering far greater spatial diversity on the same footprint.
Pictured: Movable wall allowing large meeting room to be slplit into two small collab rooms with a whiteboard.
At Sheldon, movable partitions have allowed us to create areas that can shift from:
Large to multiple small meeting rooms
Enclosed boardrooms and open plan combined town hall/kitchen spaces
Open to closed collaboration zones
The benefits of movable walls and modular partitions
More outcomes per square metre.
Traditional layouts often leave underutilised spaces, such as boardrooms sized for quarterly meetings or training rooms that sit idle. With modular walls and curtain partitions, spaces can be designed for day-to-day requirements and then opened when required. The result is a higher utilisation rate and fewer dead zones, meaning your floor performs like a larger tenancy without paying for one.
Pictured: Recent Sheldon project featuring a large entertaining / town hall space that can be dividied into a seperate kitchen and training centre, and even further into smaller meeting rooms, through the use of tow modular walls.
Adaptable to changing organisational needs.
Organisational growth, restructures, hybrid schedules and new projects all stress a fixed plan. Modular partitions absorb that change. With staged movable walls just like the ones we installed for a recent global client’s new Macquarie Park fitout (pictured above), teams can re-zone a large breakout space into an enclosed conference room, and even further into small meeting rooms. This operational flexibility keeps the workplace aligned to business rhythms and avoids expensive churn. This also provides a more sustainable approach to office fitouts, where designing for disassembly and future reconfiguration reduces waste and extends the life of fitouts.
A better visual experience without compromising performance
By selecting the right partitioning provider, movable walls between meeting rooms can be installed whilst maintaining a high DW rating. As a more cost effective and ‘light touch’ option, acoustic curtains can also be installed to provide comfortable soft-edged zoning for collaboration areas, adding texture and improving reverberation times. Aesthetic and functional benefits of movable walls can also include glass panels (to maintain visual connection to daylight), and whiteboard inserts.
Pictured: Training room for Siemens Healthineers’ equiptment training centre than can be divided into two breakout groups via an operable wall.
Faster leasing and simpler change for owners.
For commercial landlords, modularity is a leasing advantage. Speculative suites that demonstrate multiple configurations attract a wider pool of tenants and lease faster. Designing with partitions that can be re-set between deals shortens downtime and reduces make-good waste, strengthening lifecycle returns across a floor.
Pictured: Curtain installed in speculative suite that allows breakout space to be confirgured between open and closed settings. THis also allows invoming tenants to invisign an option for an additional meeting room or an extended workfloor areas withtout it needing to be constructed.
Sheldon’s advantage in the delivery of adaptable partitioning systems
Because our design, partitioning, manufacturing and services teams are in-house, these elements are designed, built and coordinated as part of the overall fitout, allowing them to look seamless, perform acoustically and be easily operated.
Pictured: Operable wall between kitchen and front of house area delivered as part of Siemen’s Healthineers Macquarie Park office fitout.