Research has shown that engineers really tend to dislike being interrupted by outsiders (managers, salespeople, etc), but really tolerate a lot of interruptions from other engineers[1]. I feel like there has to be a happy medium. Ok, so we're not going to end up getting (and maybe shouldn't end up getting) private offices or dedicated workspaces. Those may inhibit our ability to collaborate with other engineers. But open bullpen layouts leave the worker with no privacy and allow unlimited interruptions by outsiders.

[1] Source: http://books.google.pl/books?id=QZPpdB_yfqgC&printsec=frontc...