Open space and glass walls in 2021.

At home, in the office and, now more than ever, in public places we’re seeing growing demand for rooms or even entire premises dedicated to very specific activities, of various kinds. It could be for working professionally at home – including the necessary increase in smart working – or for leisure purposes or simply a desire to change the volumes in a home. Open space workplaces have been partitioned, and not only temporarily, to ensure distancing during the pandemic, above all to safeguard privacy and relieve stress. The open space concept for offices began to spread in the ‘50s and was a veritable revolution that brought down walls to facilitate mobility, work station flexibility and communication between colleagues (it’s much easier to organize a meeting when colleagues at their desks are already “gathered”).

But it now looks as if open space’s days are numbered, as many interior design people have pointed out. To split up open spaces, which are big almost by definition, it’s clearly not enough to create rooms by building walls with plasterboard or completely transparent glass because they’d immediately feel like “intrusions”, albeit in two opposite ways (blind or completely transparent, they’re still enclosures) and in any case creating a rather false look. Open spaces could also be partitioned by installing satin-finish glass walls, even traditional and therefore fairly inexpensive ones, as this satisfies the already established need to safeguard privacy, but with fluidity and that diffused lighting effect and delicate rendering of volumes that only this type of surface can produce. However, there’s no denying that such surfaces are always uniform, so that spaces may look dreary or even oppressive.

Fluido is the new satin-finish glass with an elegant linear 3D structure.

A dynamic solution to the problem of a satin glass wall’s visual immobility is provided by the Madras® Fluido model. The formal rigour of its design interacts with a new tactile appeal. Special satin finishes are applied to the undulations pressed into the glass: matt for Fluido, opalescent for Fluido/V. For surfaces that render volumes vibrant whether they’re static, like furnishings, or dynamic, like the people moving in the space.

More privacy, sumptuous diffusion of light. The timeless allure of a rigorously linear texture works in perfect harmony with classic- or post-modern inspired contemporary furnishings.

Fluido is made in 1,610 x 3,210 mm sheets, 4 and 6 mm thick; colour: clear. It can be tempered, painted and silvered. Such flexibility means architects and designers have a wide choice of applications, including, in interiors, partition walls, doors, wardrobe doors and shower screens, or painted for finishing panelling and other décor elements or, externally, cladding façades.

Open space and glass walls in 2021.

At home, in the office and, now more than ever, in public places we’re seeing growing demand for rooms or even entire premises dedicated to very specific activities, of various kinds. It could be for working professionally at home – including the necessary increase in smart working – or for leisure purposes or simply a desire to change the volumes in a home. Open space workplaces have been partitioned, and not only temporarily, to ensure distancing during the pandemic, above all to safeguard privacy and relieve stress. The open space concept for offices began to spread in the ‘50s and was a veritable revolution that brought down walls to facilitate mobility, work station flexibility and communication between colleagues (it’s much easier to organize a meeting when colleagues at their desks are already “gathered”).

But it now looks as if open space’s days are numbered, as many interior design people have pointed out. To split up open spaces, which are big almost by definition, it’s clearly not enough to create rooms by building walls with plasterboard or completely transparent glass because they’d immediately feel like “intrusions”, albeit in two opposite ways (blind or completely transparent, they’re still enclosures) and in any case creating a rather false look. Open spaces could also be partitioned by installing satin-finish glass walls, even traditional and therefore fairly inexpensive ones, as this satisfies the already established need to safeguard privacy, but with fluidity and that diffused lighting effect and delicate rendering of volumes that only this type of surface can produce. However, there’s no denying that such surfaces are always uniform, so that spaces may look dreary or even oppressive.

Fluido is the new satin-finish glass with an elegant linear 3D structure.

A dynamic solution to the problem of a satin glass wall’s visual immobility is provided by the Madras® Fluido model. The formal rigour of its design interacts with a new tactile appeal. Special satin finishes are applied to the undulations pressed into the glass: matt for Fluido, opalescent for Fluido/V. For surfaces that render volumes vibrant whether they’re static, like furnishings, or dynamic, like the people moving in the space.

More privacy, sumptuous diffusion of light. The timeless allure of a rigorously linear texture works in perfect harmony with classic- or post-modern inspired contemporary furnishings.

Fluido is made in 1,610 x 3,210 mm sheets, 4 and 6 mm thick; colour: clear. It can be tempered, painted and silvered. Such flexibility means architects and designers have a wide choice of applications, including, in interiors, partition walls, doors, wardrobe doors and shower screens, or painted for finishing panelling and other décor elements or, externally, cladding façades.