Office Space

From a recent Q&A from some facilities person at our company:

There has been talk about the company moving toward more of an "open space" office design standard. Can you help shed some light on the direction the company is heading with regard to its workspaces?
What we are aiming to do goes beyond open space. We're rolling out a new workspace design that delivers a balance between open, collaborative spaces, flexible focus areas and some traditional offices. We are evolving our space standards to meet the changing needs of the organization and our employees.

What is beyond open space?  Are we all going to end up working by standing up outside with just our laptop and no desk or personal space at all?  This is truly disturbing.  I hate open spaces at work – it’s bad enough working in a cube.  Now if I have to see my neighbors all the time as well as hear them all the time, I despair.  I suspect there will be a lot of pushback to this.  Personally, I’m very traditionalist when it comes to my workspace – I want my own space to personalize as I see fit, and I want privacy so that no one apart from me can see my screen (which obviously has nothing to do with the fact that I’m on the internet all the time, at least when I’m not busy).  Ideally I want a window office.  I’m one of the few people on my floor who doesn’t have one of those adjustable desks that allow you to work sitting or standing – call me old-fashioned.  I’ve heard about other companies in our industry who basically have no designated spaces – you take whatever space is free when you get into the office.  This sounds like an absolute nightmare – and allows for absolutely no personalization and I imagine no sense of belonging.  There are times when collaboration and communication are important, there are more times when you have to hunker down and get on with your job.  An open space doesn’t allow for that.  I don’t even know why so much time and effort is spent on the workplace – in 5 or 10 years times we’re probably all going to be telecommuting and working from home.