I think it really depends who you are sharing the space with. To me it's very valuable to have the other engineers from my team and the PM as close as possible.

I think it really depends who you are sharing the space with. To me it's very valuable to have the other engineers from my team and the PM as close as possible. Especially with a lot of pair programming going on being able to overhear stuff is invaluable. Having some sales guy nearby on the other hand has no advantage and is only distracting.