Discipline

Screens & Partitions

Dividing space without closing it — pattern, light and transparency in metal.

Enquire about Screens & Partitions 24 pictures

Bronze grid partition wall in a boardroom

Separation without a wall.

Dividing space without closing it — pattern, light and transparency worked out in metal and glass.

A screen is one of the few elements that changes a room twice: once as an object, and again as the pattern of light it throws. Getting that right is a question of proportion — the ratio of solid to void, the thickness of the ligament between cuts, and how the pattern resolves at the frame.

We cut screens on a CNC laser with a two by four metre bed, so most panels come out of a single sheet without a joint. Where a pattern is larger than that, we plan the joint into the pattern rather than through it.

The same discipline applies to steel-and-glass partitions and sliding systems, where the section size, the glazing detail and the running gear all have to be resolved together.

What this covers

Decorative laser-cut screens
Room dividers and freestanding screens
Sliding and folding partition systems
Metal-and-glass framed partitions
Custom laser-cut patterns developed to a design
Screens integrated with backlighting

A note from the workshop

What a screen is for decides the pattern

A screen that divides a restaurant is doing a different job from one that hides a plant room, and both are different from one that carries light. How much you should see through it, from which side, at what distance — those settle how open the pattern can be and how the cut edges are treated, before any pattern is chosen.

The pattern itself is nearly free to change until the sheet is cut, and expensive after. So the sample is a section of the real screen at full size, held up where it will stand, and looked at from where people will actually see it. Patterns that look right on a screen at a desk often need opening up or closing down once they are at architectural scale.

In pictures

Screens & Partitions from the workshop

The gallery

Brass palm-leaf screen on a hotel terrace

Brass ribbon screen across a staircase void

Blue laser-cut metal screen panel set against a wall

Brass screen with an organic branching pattern

Brass laser-cut screen panel in a slim frame

Brass folding screens enclosing a hotel lobby corner

Backlit metal screen panels lining a corridor

Brass lattice screen set into an interior wall

Steel and glass sliding partition in a suite

Brass screens enclosing a hotel lounge seating area

Questions about screens & partitions

How open should a decorative screen be?

It depends on what it is for. A screen that separates two dining areas should let light and glimpses through but not a clear view; one that hides a plant room should not. The pattern’s open area, its depth and how it is lit decide this, so the honest test is a full-size section of the real pattern held where the screen will stand and looked at from where people will be.

Can a laser-cut pattern be changed once it is cut?

No — a cut sheet is a cut sheet. Everything before that point is cheap to change and everything after it is a new panel. That is why the pattern is proofed at full size, on the real metal, before the production run starts.