The Rise of Writable Acrylic Partitions
Acrylic (or Perspex, as it’s known commercially) room dividers have been around for a long time. So too have wipe-clean wipe boards.
But it’s only recently that the two have been brought together synergistically to create a room divider that also serves as an office writing board.
Writable partitions are central to the post-pandemic ‘agile’ office movement, an approach to work that prizes cleanliness, modularity and flexibility in workspaces.
By using the walls of a workspace to brainstorm ideas and update Kanban boards, agile teams can kill two birds with one stone – they have a physical divider that separates them from other teams and gives them somewhere to jot down ideas on the go.
In this post, we take a closer look at why acrylic boards are about to become a fixture in office spaces.
Agile Environments
Agile work environments are predicated on flexibility.
That means an agile office space is one where workers can jump freely from office to office or space to space.
The writable acrylic partition is a godsend for such mobile workers, as they can’t always be sure they will have the necessary writing equipment at their disposal to jot down ideas and record what they have decided on.
With a partition-writing surface hybrid, this is no longer a worry, allowing workers to become true office nomads.
Wipe Clean
The post-COVID workplace is a very different one from the pre-pandemic one, not least because people are now acutely aware of the importance of cleanliness and how germs spread.
As such, wipe-clean is a property sought after in all office equipment and fixtures.
Indeed, it’s no longer just a nice-to-have.
Hygiene-first approaches to cooperative work mean that non-porous materials like acrylic for office partitions and writing boards are much sought-after.
Office Partition
The writable acrylic partition is not just a handy writing surface; it also has a job to do in providing seclusion and privacy to workers in different parts of an office.
Acrylic partitions are especially good at partitioning spaces where privacy is required but where an office wants to maintain a sense of openness.
Clear acrylic writing partitions are especially useful here, as you can scribble on them and let lots of morale-boosting natural light into a space at the same time.
But if more privacy is required, the acrylic board can be frosted, giving a visual block on neighbouring workspaces – and paired with tripartite acoustic panels like the ones at Rap Industries Ltd, you also have an acoustic barrier if sound is an issue, too.
Eye Fatigue Reduction
In an increasingly digital world, the move to writable boards and pens might seem like a step in the wrong direction.
But the writable acrylic partition can be tonic to the proliferation of cornea-burning digital screens and VDUs you find around modern offices.
By bringing a bit of analogue back into the ideation and brainstorming processes, writable acrylic partitions give workers’ eyes some much-needed respite from display screens eye fatigue.
Conclusion
Acrylic partitions are not new, but the ways they are being adapted to the way we work in the 21st century are.
The writable partition seems such a natural development that it’s inevitable that over the next few years, it will become a common sight in more and more offices.
