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News: social network Facebook has paid $2 billion to acquire Oculus VR, the technology company behind the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg made the announcement on his own Facebook page yesterday, stating that his company will help Oculus VR develop its products and find new applications for the virtual reality technology.

“This is really a new communication platform,” said Zuckerburg. “By feeling truly present, you can share unbounded spaces and experiences with the people in your life.”

First launched on crowd-funding website Kickstarter in 2012, Oculus Rift creates an immersive computer-generated environment in front of the wearer.

The technology is already set to change the way video games are played and Facebook plans to see this realised. “Immersive gaming will be the first, and Oculus already has big plans here that won’t be changing and we hope to accelerate,” said Zuckerburg.

Earlier this year Dezeen filmed a movie with Andy Millns of 3D production company Inition, which has been working with Oculus VR to develop the headset.

“Oculus Rift has been sort of the poster child for virtual reality,” Millns said. “What you’ve got essentially is a seven-inch mobile phone-type screen and two lenses. It’s that simple.”

Oculus Rift was demonstrated at an installation in London department store Selfridges, in which users could experience a virtual world designed by Inition with fashion designer Gareth Pugh.

The device is currently in the running for the Designs of the Year 2014 prize organised by London’s Design Museum.

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News: architect Frank Gehry is designing new offices for social network Facebook in London and Dublin.

Frank Gehry first started working with Facebook last year on the design of its new Silicon Valley campus, but will now work with the company to replace its existing offices in the UK and Irish capitals.

The new London headquarters will reportedly occupy three floors of 10 Brock Street – a British Land development at Regent’s Place, London. With an area of 8000 square metres, it will double the size of the existing Covent Garden address and will place Facebook in the same building as rival social network Twitter.

“Our new home will give us the space to double the number of people working at Facebook London and build on what we’ve achieved there over the past few years,” Facebook’s European chief Nicola Mendelsohn told the Evening Standard.

Facebook’s Dublin staff will relocate to a new 11,000 square-metre space in Grand Canal Square, allowing capacity for up to 1000 employees.

Gehry, who is best-known for buildings such as the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and the Walt Disney Concert Hall, is also designing an office in New York for the company’s engineering team. He is still working on the Silicon Valley campus after being asked to “tone down” the original designs.

The post Frank Gehry-designed Facebook offices
planned for London and Dublin appeared first on Dezeen.

Fliike est un boîtier qui affiche en temps réel le nombre de likes d’une page Facebook. Pensé par Smiirl, ce gadget pensé pour être mis en avant dans divers endroits tels que des bureaux ou des boutiques permet de relier le virtuel au réel. Un objet proposé à 500 exemplaires numérotés à découvrir en vidéo dans la suite.

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News: Facebook asked Frank Gehry to “tone down” his original plans for its new Silicon Valley campus, according to a partner at the architect’s firm.

Early proposals for the campus, which was given the go-ahead by Menlo Park City Council last week, envisioned a bold, curving facade reminiscent of well-known Gehry buildings such as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

“They felt some of those things were too flashy and not in keeping with the kind of the culture of Facebook, so they asked us to make it more anonymous,” said Craig Webb, a partner at Gehry’s practice.

“Frank was quite willing to tone down some of the expression of architecture in the building,” he told the Mercury News, explaining that they plan to disguise the white stucco building with a rooftop garden: “Our intent is that it almost becomes like a hillside, with the landscape really taking the forefront.”

According to one Facebook employee, the 40,000-square-metre building will house 2,800 engineers in a single warehouse-like room.

“Just like we do now, everyone will sit out in the open with desks that can be quickly shuffled around as teams form and break apart around projects,” said Facebook’s environmental design manager Everett Katigbak in a blog post.

“The exterior takes into account the local architecture so that it fits in well with its surroundings. We’re planting a ton of trees on the grounds and more on the rooftop garden that spans the entire building,” he added.

An underground tunnel will connect the Gehry-designed building with Facebook’s existing campus over the road.

Gehry was brought in to design the campus last summer, with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stating at the time that he wanted an office with “the largest open floor plan in the world”.

The social networking site’s former Palo Alto headquarters was completed by San Francisco firm Studio O+A in 2009.

Facebook isn’t the only Californian technology company expanding into larger headquarters currently, with construction now underway on Apple’s ring-shaped campus in Cupertino designed by Foster + Partners, while Google recently revealed plans for a 100,000-square-metre campus in San Francisco Bay.

Images are by Gehry Partners LLP.

The post Facebook asks Gehry to design
“more anonymous” headquarters appeared first on Dezeen.

by Vivianne Lapointe LA-based artist Diane Gaeta explores the complex themes of sexuality, self discovery and the life of a young Parisian girl through the manipulation of her image found on social networks in “Lolitas,” Gaeta’s two-day solo show at The America Martin Gallery. We had a chance to meet…

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