Working in the smallest of spaces: Flexible room design makes it possible.

The rapidly advancing urbanization means that cities worldwide are more densely populated and life in them is more expensive than ever before. As building land becomes scarce, intelligent and efficient concepts are needed to maximize the available space. This secures the urban future by enabling people and businesses to thrive and develop despite limited spatial possibilities. Innovative companies like Dorma Hüppe, which manufacture flexible, vertical partition systems, open up such possibilities for us.

Worldwide urbanization is progressing at an astonishing pace: By 2050, two-thirds of people will live in cities. In 1950, by comparison, it was less than a third of the population. In 2000, there were 371 cities with over a million inhabitants; by 2030, this number will have almost doubled.

As more and more people and businesses are drawn to cities, the remaining available space there is continuously shrinking, while at the same time price levels are steadily rising.

In central London, 13.2 million square meters of new office space was built last month – roughly equivalent to the capacity of five Empire State Buildings. These commercial properties are not cheap – between 2011 and 2015, prices in the city rose by 70 percent. London is not alone in this: In downtown Philadelphia, prices climbed by 87.5 percent in seven years, with a 15 percent increase in 2015 alone.

Room for Growth

For available building land, urban developers are looking for ever more creative uses. They use vertical space for towering office buildings and expand the sprawling city outskirts by building residential developments. At the same time, ways are being sought to revitalize abandoned plots, for example by having architects specifically plan apartments in existing gaps between buildings.

However, creativity can only reduce costs to a certain extent. In Hong Kong, the most expensive housing market in the world, home prices have risen by 126 percent in just over two decades. Here, people spend an average of 69 percent of their monthly income on paying off their mortgages.

One solution is the 25-square-meter living capsules that young people rent in shared apartments for 400 to 650 US dollars. Another alternative is a recently proposed idea to build micro-apartments in concrete drainage pipes, which are installed under overpasses or in parking lots.

As the situation regarding available building land is extremely tense, some cities are even expanding onto water. In Dhaka, where land prices rose by 74 percent between 2000 and 2010, floodplains of rivers and even canals and ditches are being used for construction or are being informally settled. In Tel Aviv, engineers are even developing experimental models for floating suburbs that – built on barges – are supposed to support three ten-story buildings and would extend the city into the Mediterranean Sea.

Flexible Space Design

The severe shortage of space as a resource makes it clear how important it is to use the available area as efficiently and flexibly as possible.

For example, before law firms, conference centers, hotels, and universities take drastic measures when their space requirements change, they should use innovative ways to maximize what already exists. In the past, traditional office partitions offered an effective but difficult-to-store and space-consuming solution.

Today, vertical partition wall systems that can be stored under the ceiling to save space when not needed offer an intelligent and convenient solution. With them, a room can be expanded or reduced as needed – even in the often cramped conditions of an urban environment.

Make one into two: Foldable walls that can be moved into the ceiling offer the possibility for flexible space design without additional space requirements.

Dorma Hüppe, a dormakaba subsidiary, has developed flexible, vertically movable walls that can be individually adapted to almost any room situation, whether it is a spacious conference room, a cozy office, or a lecture hall with tiered or sloped floors. Within a few minutes, a mechanism folds the partition wall at the push of a button, which is also soundproofed for optimal acoustics. The variety of possible surfaces ranges from wood veneer to individual designs, thus enabling visually harmonious integration into almost any environment: from university lecture halls to stylish hotel restaurants.

Floating suburbs and living capsules may seem apocalyptic to some, but increasing population and building density is by no means synonymous with catastrophe or impending doom. On the contrary, experts believe that densely populated cities could reduce CO2 emissions by a third. In addition, cities represent a significant economic power, generating 80 percent of global GDP and the majority of international employment.

The big city therefore beckons with many promises, for which intelligent and design-oriented solutions are needed. The vertically movable partition wall systems from Dorma Hüppe are just the beginning of a whole range of possibilities to actively help shape the exciting urban future.