That looks horrifying. What are the benefits of such a layout?
I am a quant in a bank and I work in similar massive open spaces. Being in such noisy places has actually helped me find my focus zone! No matter how noisy it gets, I seem to be able to find a calm place within my head
It's really cheap to build and run.
Facebook's new office is much bigger than that. However the space is broken up by meeting rooms, walls, stairwells, etc. From what I've seen the noise and distractions are probably better than many other open plan office I've worked in.