How the pros at PRO sculpt immersive exhibition spaces? What makes coiled wire fabric uniquely qualified for the task of dividing vast open halls into distinct, contemplative zones without closing one off from another?

That was one of many design problems at the heart of the Mandala Lab, the immersive cultural experience created by Peterson Rich Office (PRO) on the third floor of the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan. Inspired by the Tibetan Buddhist mandala and shaped with input from cognitive scientists, Buddhist teachers, and contemporary artists, PRO reimagined the third floor of the Rubin Museum as a space where visitors could move through distinct thematic sections without restriction – each an invitation to sit with a different human emotion.

The brief carried a built-in tension. Each section needed its own sense of place – some quiet enough for a visitor to step away and have a personal, independent experience; others intended to be experienced communally. But unlike many exhibition halls, the 2,700-square-foot hall would best serve museum-goers if it remained open, airy, and full of light to become a multi-purpose level that could equally host meditation, programs, and family classes without ever feeling like a maze of closed rooms. Solid walls or rigid, opaque partitions may have solved the first problem while destroying the second. PRO quickly identified the solution.

Rather than building partitions that block passage and restrict sightlines, the answer for PRO lie in a fully engineered solution that could define the space without enclosing it. The team turned to Fabricoil® Coiled Wire Fabric Systems and the team at Cascade Architectural who manufactured over 1,500 square feet of semi-transparent architectural metal mesh for PRO to create a mix of fixed dividers and operable partitions that would draw soft boundaries throughout the room.

Light passes through. Sightlines carry across the floor. Layered panels draw focused attention to key areas and integrated lighting systems highlight boundaries. A visitor standing in one section of the exhibit remains connected to the whole and naturally drawn to what comes next. Combining fixed and operable metal mesh panels from a drapery-style attachment system, boundaries remain impermanent – allowing the space to reshaped as the program shifted from quiet meditation to a family class. The same hall, simultaneously open and closed. Reconfigurable without a single wall to move.

The material selected was a 1/4" 18-gauge steel Fabricoil® coiled wire fabric hung from a pre-engineered Steel Secura Track attachment system and finished in Metallic White powder coat.

That high-quality, architectural-grade powder coated finish did quiet, important work. Softening the ambient lighting used throughout and reflecting the exhibit's mellow color palette, the metal mesh material would be perceived less as cold steel hardware and more as the warm, complimentary shift in atmosphere from one zone to the next it was intended.

Why coiled wire fabric? Because a solid divider tells you where one thing ends. But a semi-transparent coiled wire fabric divider tells you that something changes here while keeping you connected to everything around it. The result is visual distinction without disconnection. One section naturally flowing into the next. A space that remains whole even as it is quietly broken into parts.

It's a space sculpting principle that reaches well beyond a single museum floor into any environment that must feel both zoned and open simultaneously. A gallery, a lobby, a wellness space, a workplace built for focus and flow; they each encounter the same tension so expertly resolved by Peterson Rich Office at the Mandala Lab. It's a tension that coiled wire fabric is unusually great at resolving because it can divide, screen, soften light, and shape movement without ever sealing a space off.

Change a few material specifications the surface becomes more opaque or more transparent. Change others and the surface becomes an excellent projection surface for digital media or ambient lighting effects. Add additional hardware and the same system can control access/egress under lock and key. Utilize fixed or operable attachment hardware and these coiled wire fabric systems are quickly adapted for a wide range of applications—equipped for motorized operation or even integrated into building automation systems. Moreover, the same core material and attachment systems performing partition duty here can just as easily become a custom ceiling treatment, a feature wall, a light-diffusing scrim, or an exterior screen shading building occupants from the harsh sun.

It's these reason and more why coiled wire fabric systems tend to show up wherever designers are working at the intersection of structure and atmosphere.

The Mandala Lab is no longer on view in New York; the Rubin closed its 17th Street building in 2024 as it reinvented itself as a global museum. But the idea PRO built into that floor — that you can give people separate, contemplative experiences and a single connected space at the same time — is exactly the kind of thinking immersive design keeps reaching for.

If you're designing a space that needs to divide without closing, Cascade's experienced team of technical experts is always just a phone call away to help you bring your vision to life.

Explore Fabricoil for interior environments →

Design: Peterson Rich Office (PRO) Photography: © Rafael Gamo*