Someone takes a call at their desk and needs to discuss a private matter. With coworkers just a few steps away, they look for a room where they can continue the conversation. Glass partitions help keep work areas open while creating separate rooms for meetings, calls, and focused work. Depending on each room’s privacy needs, you can use clear glass, sandblasted glass, or electric privacy glass.
Blocking the view into a room and keeping conversations private are different needs. Someone in the hallway can hear what people are saying in a meeting even if the glass keeps them from seeing inside.
Clear Glass Keeps the Room Visible from the Hallway
A clear glass partition lets people in the hallway see whether a room is occupied without opening the door. Screens and documents on the table are also visible from outside. It is easier to see what a screen is showing when it faces the hallway than when it faces an interior wall. Closing the door does not change what is visible through the glass. The design team can place a section of solid wall between the screen and the hallway while keeping clear glass in other parts of the partition.
A room can be visible from the desks and still receive little natural light. How much light reaches the table depends on the location and size of the windows, the type of glass, and what is between the windows and the room. A tall filing cabinet in front of the glass panel can block some of that light.
Meeting Privacy Depends on What People Can See and Hear from Outside
If people review private documents in a room every day, the table may need to stay out of view. A room used for presentations and different types of meetings does not necessarily need that privacy during every session.
There are three things to check when planning visual privacy for these rooms:
- Decide which parts of the glass will be sandblasted: Sandblasting is a permanent surface treatment that limits the view through the glass. It can cover the entire panel or form bands, patterns, and logos. Privacy depends on the treatment selected, the area of glass it covers, and the viewer’s position. A band or logo does not guarantee that everything behind the glass will be hidden.
- Match band height to screens and tables: A frosted band at seated eye level can leave a screen positioned above it visible. Before deciding on the band’s height, check what is visible from the hallway, both standing and sitting.
- Switch from clear to opaque glass during meetings: With Switch-It electric privacy glass, the panel can stay clear between meetings and turn opaque when visual privacy is needed. Even when opaque, it still lets light through. Before using it in a framed partition, check that the glass is compatible with the system and plan the electrical connections. Switching to opaque changes visual privacy; the partition’s ability to reduce sound is assessed separately.
Reducing noise does not guarantee that conversations will remain private: someone in the hallway may still understand what is being said even if voices sound quieter. Review the entire enclosure, meaning everything that separates the room from neighboring spaces: the glass, door, frames, seals, joints, and any openings that let sound through.
Individual Spaces for Calls and Focused Work
Someone taking a call needs less space than a team holding a meeting, but they may still need a room where no one outside can understand the conversation. Someone else might need a place with fewer interruptions to review a report.
A person writing in front of a clear glass partition will still see coworkers walking by, even in a separate room. Locating the room away from printers or the reception area can reduce distractions from people passing by. Even with the door closed, people inside may still hear conversations outside.
Individual spaces help keep the meeting room available for teams. To decide how many rooms are needed and where to locate them, consider how many people will use them, for how long, and how people will move through the office.
Before ordering glass partitions, define how each room will be used, what needs to stay out of view, and which conversations require privacy. Each room may need a different combination of glass, doors, and hardware.
The project team is responsible for the office design and layout. At PRL, we can help you review glass and aluminum options for the partitions and check their compatibility with the doors and hardware.
Tell us which areas you need to separate, what kind of privacy each one needs, and whether you already have measurements or plans.
