I've worked in a variety of settings, and my favorite is a small team in a conference room/tiny open office. 3-8 people.
People tend to be respectful of each other's concentration at that number of people. And since you're in the same team, most interruptions are likely to be useful to other members of the team. But if we wanted to just bother 1 specific person, we would just use instant message.
Our manager worked in the same conference room too. But he would step outside for any calls he had to make.
It also gave an exiting "small startup" feel for me, even when working for a large company.
People tend to be respectful of each other's concentration at that number of people. And since you're in the same team, most interruptions are likely to be useful to other members of the team. But if we wanted to just bother 1 specific person, we would just use instant message.
Our manager worked in the same conference room too. But he would step outside for any calls he had to make.
It also gave an exiting "small startup" feel for me, even when working for a large company.