4 ms·
This will most certainly be interesting to watch. My visceral reaction to the idea of one giant room was, "Wow. No thanks." I'm not personally the biggest fan o
by fourspace 14y ago
This will most certainly be interesting to watch. My visceral reaction to the idea of one giant room was, "Wow. No thanks." I'm not personally the biggest fan of Frank Gehry's work, either.
That said, I'm always a little bit excited when people push architectural boundaries, especially when it comes to workspaces. Hopefully my friends at Facebook will still be around when this is completed.
- holman 14y agoMy visceral reaction to the idea of one giant room was "Rad". Love open floor plans. I'm really curious what the final interior plan will look like; presumably it's not some huge airplane hanger of openness but some clever way of staying open-while-interesting. Like you, though, I'm just excited at the prospect of larger companies doing something different. Should be fun to watch.
- drgath 14y agoI appreciate open floor plans too, but it seems like a little too much for me. Here's a hi-res photo of the model's floorplan (which I'm sure is just a sample). http://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/facebook-west-campus-smaller.png?w=4000 http://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/facebook... I'll reserve final judgement until it's built and we can see pictures/video.
- troymc 14y agoThey (Facebook) should really look at what research has found before they jump feet-first into having an open floor plan. It's not like they've just invented it! Open floor plans were invented as a way to cram more people into less space, thereby minimizing cost of office space per employee. They were not invented to improve productivity.
- underwater 14y agoFacebook offices have always been open plan. I personally like it. It can occasionally been frustrating, but overall the benefits outweigh the negatives for the way we work. I don't believe that it has ever been about minimizing costs. Many people work from home or camp out in a small meeting room if they want privacy. There are also over ear head phones available for free all around the campus.
- troymc 14y agoWikipedia has an article that links to a lot of the research on open plan offices (and other configurations): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_plan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_plan
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- drgath 14y ago> I don't believe that it has ever been about minimizing costs. At Facebook, no, it hasn't been. What parent is saying is that he hopes FB did some research on whether this will actually help or hurt productivity before risking the lifeblood of the company (engineer productivity).
- coecoventures 14y ago37 Signals has a great approach where they have open office space, phone booths for private calls, and meeting rooms of varying sizes. Speaking of research, they should also find out how much it costs to maintain a Ghery building. If you think Facebook stock is bad now wait until you see how a Ghery building affects their bottom line.