While I would prefer a private office with a window to an open office seat, I much prefer an open office to a cubicle. Not being able to see any windows and being in a small, depressing space alone for 40 hours a week sounds terrible.
But above all, I like working from home, where I can have a nice space with windows and no distractions. Of course, I am lucky because not everyone has a space like this in their home.
My office is in a ~95 year old skyscraper, so even when we used cubicles everyone was close to a window. Instead of the current style in which office buildings have huge rectangular floor plates with elevators in the center, new office tower construction can take design cues from the old days with H shapes or central light shafts.
> nstead of the current style in which office buildings have huge rectangular floor plates with elevators in the center
I think you hit the nail on the head, this is why cubicles were hated, it wasn't the cubicle, it was the sprawling cubicle farm that was hated. Even a private office in the middle of that farm is not pleasant, so the the private offices went around the outside and made things even worse in the inner cubicles. Hopefully this campus style building dies.
At least around me the trend has been towards much thinner but taller office buildings for a while now, partly out of necessity as city plots of land get smaller. These accommodate cubicles and/or offices with natural light really well. The often derided glass and steel architecture also helps because you get floor to ceiling natural light.
I've long thought it illogical that people slave away in wretched conditions for 8 hours per day, bookended by long commutes, in order to afford a nice home that they don't actually spend many daylight hours in. Sometimes, a non-working spouse and children get to enjoy the home, but in the more normal two-income or single-parent family, even that is not the case.
Ah yes, and at home I am not obligated to use the company desk/chair that everyone else has, so I have a more comfortable setup. Plus I get to pick the temperature, and I can use my speakers instead of wearing headphones.
I can take my own mouse/keyboard to the office, but I'm sure someday that will be forbidden in the name of information security. Sigh.
Still, my home office is a lot more comfy! Plus I can open the windows!
But above all, I like working from home, where I can have a nice space with windows and no distractions. Of course, I am lucky because not everyone has a space like this in their home.