Partition screen

Boundary and skin

Partition screen

Timelessfolding screen · movable partition · shoji (Japanese) · byōbu (Japanese)

housingofficeschoolclinic

A light panel, fixed, folding or sliding, that divides an interior space without being a wall.

Solves

What it solves

It makes it possible to change the size of a space according to its use and to give privacy without blocking light. In the tropics, if it does not reach the ceiling, it lets the breeze cross the whole house.

Today

Choose screens that stop short of the ceiling or have perforated parts so air can circulate. Where real privacy is needed, take care with sound insulation.

Common mistake

Closing off with floor-to-ceiling screens spaces that used to ventilate from side to side.

Tomorrow

In schools, movable screens make it possible to go from classroom to play room or assembly hall in the same day. Made with plant fibers or reused materials they also help reduce noise.

Where it comes from

  • 1Han dynasty China, 206 BC to 220 AD
    The folding screen was invented, and its Chinese name (pingfeng) refers to blocking the wind.
  • 2Ancient Japan Japan, 7th and 8th centuries
    The folding screen (byōbu) arrived from China and over the centuries took on its own character.
  • 3Japanese house Japan, since the late 12th century
    Sliding panels of translucent paper (shoji) divide the house flexibly and bring light deep inside.

Masters

  • Gerrit Rietveld Rietveld Schröder House, Utrecht, Netherlands, 1924
    He divides the upper floor with sliding and pivoting panels. This way the space can stay open by day or be separated into rooms at night.

Appears in the routes

Sources

See also

Also in Boundary and skin

Diagrams and texts by LDB Arquitectura. They are shared under the CC BY 4.0 license, which allows them to be used and adapted with credit to the source.