I'm not sure why you think "an apartment was never designed to be spacious." There are plenty of spacious apartments out there, especially in big cities where apartment living is a way of life and especially in the luxury market. But the newer apartments being built these days tend to be a lot less spacious. Even at luxury prices, you're not getting an elegant open concept living space in a modern apartment. You're getting a small, boxy living room with a kitchen along one wall. You can barely fit your family, nevermind guests. It seems like they're being designed to push you out of your private apartment and into the shared communal spaces.
Apartments built for the poor in the 1950s often offer more gracious room sizes and proportions than apartments being built for the pretty well-off today.
I'm not sure why you think "an apartment was never designed to be spacious." There are plenty of spacious apartments out there, especially in big cities where apartment living is a way of life and especially in the luxury market. But the newer apartments being built these days tend to be a lot less spacious. Even at luxury prices, you're not getting an elegant open concept living space in a modern apartment. You're getting a small, boxy living room with a kitchen along one wall. You can barely fit your family, nevermind guests. It seems like they're being designed to push you out of your private apartment and into the shared communal spaces.
Apartments built for the poor in the 1950s often offer more gracious room sizes and proportions than apartments being built for the pretty well-off today.