I worked in an open office for 7 or 8 years, and now have been working from my spare room for 2 years. I miss exactly what you are talking about: collaboration

I worked in an open office for 7 or 8 years, and now have been working from my spare room for 2 years. I miss exactly what you are talking about: collaboration is much harder, there is a dramatic lack of spontaneous conversations, and I can no longer overhear or be overheard and get drawn into a conversation organically that leads to a far, far better outcome than would have happened otherwise. Some things that make the open office I experienced good: nearly the entire floor was developers with some managers, operations teams sat between developer teams, the ability to turn off overhead lighting and just let natural light in through large windows with two levels of shades on them, and there were conference rooms near by for louder conversations and white boarding. There were support folks who would need to take calls, but that was in a separate area. I never heard them. We also would have no problem saying, "hey, too loud" if a conversation good too loud or if something serious was going on. Another benefit was that when it was lunch time, just about everyone got lunch at the same time and ate together; 50-80 people in the kitchen talking shop or silly things, building rapport, hearing issues others are facing and offering help and solutions. Sometimes, like at the end of the week, it might get too noisy with too many conversations. Then it was time for headphones for some. But we are talking like an hour or two a week.