Is open-plan office for academia at all? Where I did my PhD, typically two PhD students shared an office room. In constrast, where I am working as a postdoc now, about 50 PhDs and postdocs share an open-plan office. 

I find it difficult to concentrate in the latter kind of arrangement because of the noise. Some people use head/earphones, but I guess not everyone likes to listen to music while working. I am wondering if this is a common arrangement in academia. My guess is that while it might work elsewhere, the nature of academic research precludes an open-plan type of office.

In any case, is it appropriate to ask my supervisor for a room or a smaller/quieter space to work in? I don't think I would ask, though, because everybody else seems to be fairly content, but I'm just wondering.
There is plenty of research showing that open-plan offices are a very bad idea, not just in academia but everywhere (see below for some examples).

Unfortunately, they are also much cheaper than proper offices (mainly because you can pack people much more densely).



Danielsson et al. (2014): "Office design's impact on sick leave rates", Ergonomics 57(2), doi:10.1080/00140139.2013.871064:


  The cumulative evidence thus indicates that traditional open-plan offices are less good for employee health.


Oommen et al. (2008): "Should Health Service Managers Embrace Open Plan Work Environments?: A Review" Asia Pacific Journal of Health Management 3(2), 37-43:


  Research evidence shows that employees face a multitude of problems such as the loss of privacy, loss of identity, low work productivity, various health issues, overstimulation and low job satisfaction when working in an open plan work environment.