Bolina: A Multifunctional Room Divider by Alessandra Meacci

Revolutionizing Urban Living with Versatile Design and Vertical Gardens

Alessandra Meacci, the creative mind behind Bolina, was inspired by the problems of urban houses - open spaces with no comfort and cosiness, flats with no space for plants, and terraces too close to each other. She envisioned an object that was versatile, multitasking, and functional. The result was Bolina, a circular room divider that can also be used to grow a vertical garden with minimal space encumbrance. The structure and covering of Bolina are designed to be easily packed into a small box and transported, catering to the modern trend of frequent home changes.

What sets Bolina apart is its dual functionality as a room divider and a book and plant shelf. The design allows for the suspension of variable size pots at different heights, creating a vertical garden in a house or office. The structure is easy to build and can be assembled and disassembled without difficulty, making it easily transportable. Furthermore, Bolina can function as a standalone object or as part of a modular system, with the base designed to connect multiple modules together, creating a sinuous colored wall.

Bolina's metal structure is realized through laser cutting, with circular levels designed to suspend variable size pots. The covering is made by repeatedly stretching a sailing rope from the base to the top plane, creating a curved surface that follows the line of the metal base. This design does not require the removal of the rope during assembly and disassembly, it simply needs to be loosened and then pulled when the structure is ready.

The design specifications of Bolina are as follows: base diameter is 660 mm and the height is 1900 mm. The design is tagged as a room divider, plants shelf, book shelf, wire design, vertical garden, and indoor garden. Bolina is a see-through room divider that can be used to grow a vertical garden in the house with minimal space encumbrance. It can suspend up to eleven variable size pots on it and the plants grow wrapping the sailing rope, creating a green wall. Bolina can be placed indoor or outdoor, packed in a small volume, and easily transported.

The project started in February 2016 in Padua and finished in April 2016 in Milan, and was exhibited in Salone Satellite at Salone del Mobile in April 2016. The design research focused on the structure, with the aim of finding a type of assembly that can be done without taking off the rope. The designer also aimed to create a lightweight and see-through object that can be packed into a small volume. The design faced creative challenges in developing a wire design piece of furniture, replacing wire with sailing rope. The pulled rope looks like the wire and makes easy a color customization of the object.

Bolina was designed to solve some of the problems of modern urban house: dividing open spaces to improve comfort and cosiness and creating vertical gardens with minimal encumbrance, if there is no space to keep plants. The design was awarded Silver in A' Furniture Design Award in 2017, a testament to its innovative and functional design. The copyrights of Bolina belong to Alessandra Meacci, 2016.