Waves is a space divider designed for Mogogo, a premium furniture brand for the hospitality industry.
The project was designed for the needs of the hospitality sector to create safe space divisions due to the Covid -19 pandemic, as well as dividing spaces in events.
The concept of the project was to design a frameless divider that would give both privacy and safety to hotel guests, yet not interrupt the space’s design, flow, and light.
The project started with inspiration from a napkin holder: A simple stiff element that holds a thin sheet of material.
In order to achieve this concept, we needed to find the right material that would be affordable, have the ability to hold its own weight, durable to impact and light enough to be carried by one person.
The chosen material was an industrial corrugated polycarbonate sheet that is mostly used for outdoor structures and roofings and is designed to withstand the impact of various weather conditions such as hail. The corrugated waves of the sheet are intended to strengthen the material, but for us, in addition to its structural qualities, the wave section gave the feeling of a transparent draped piece of air that filters the space behind it and creates a beautiful visual quality.
Additionally, part of the project’s brief was that the dividers would be delivered flat packed to customers and would enable both easy initial assembly and quick disassembly of the base and sheet to enable easy movement within the customer’s space.
The result is a new divider typology that is both affordable, aesthetic and due to its frameless design is gentle in its intrusion of the found spaces it is intended for and compliments them in a modest way.
The project started with the inspiration from a napkin holder: A simple stiff element that holds a thin sheet of material.
After having the initial idea, we started to explore this “napkin holder” and “napkin” relationship, looking for the balance between a minimal structure and the stability it needs to provide to the thin sheet of material.
After some sketches we started focusing on one of the directions which we saw as kind of a geometric abstraction of trees.
After having the initial design idea, we started producing a feasibility prototype to see how the design functions in real life 1:1 sizes.
After completing the feasibility prototype, it was clear that our original design did not work. Even though we used a 6mm thick sheet of PMMA, the material did not hold itself and was curved. We realized that we had to find a more structural material that could hold itself and would allow for less material use, reduce weight, be more efficient in material use and be less expensive.
Looking for a material that would keep the transparency but would give more structure we began to explore corrugated polycarbonate sheets that are mostly used for outdoor structures and roofing and are designed to withstand the impact of various weather conditions such as hail. The corrugated waves of the sheet are intended to strengthen the material, but for us, in addition to its structural qualities, the wave section gave the feeling of a transparent draped piece of air that filters the space behind it and creates a beautiful visual quality.
We explored many different options for support of the corrugated polycarbonate, starting with lower supporting elements to higher supporting elements.
1:1 models.
At this stage we started to develop the extruded profile that clamped the corrugated polycarbonate. We explored various profile shapes and finally decided on 2 profiles that together complete a circular profile.
Extruded profiles.
