Dividing a space without touching the building
Acoustic screens that hang rather than mounting to a wall or desk, from the SCH! range. They divide an open space and absorb sound without fixing anything to the walls.
Why this matters in a leased office
Most commercial leases restrict what you can fix to walls, and dilapidations clauses mean anything you do fix has to come off again at the end of the term.
A hanging screen sidesteps that. It also moves with you, which a wall-mounted panel does not.
They divide as well as absorb
Hung at the right height, these break the sight line across an open floor, which does as much for perceived noise as the absorption does. A space feels quieter when you cannot see the whole room.
They are not a partition. Sound travels over and around them.
Where to hang them
Between zones rather than in the middle of one: at the boundary between desks and breakout, or across a walkway that carries noise.
See acoustic solutions for the wider approach, and privacy booths where you need genuine enclosure rather than division.