If you search for "open office" on HN there's a thread with a ton of comments in which one person described his ideal office setup as one that has an open/communal area in the middle and individual offices surrounding it in all sides. The commenter said they tried this in real life and it worked well.
I'm curious as to why this isn't as popular—it seems so obvious. I'm actually in a program with a similar layout (except there's only individual rooms on two sides) and it works great.
I'm skeptical of "serendipity" arguments... Bell Labs had private offices and they did fine.
I'm curious as to why this isn't as popular—it seems so obvious. I'm actually in a program with a similar layout (except there's only individual rooms on two sides) and it works great.
I'm skeptical of "serendipity" arguments... Bell Labs had private offices and they did fine.