Duke Tower Kitchener | 39 fl | completed

[ijmorlan]

After graduating, I lived for a while (in Europe) in a 27 m^2 apartment, about 300 sqft. It was actually quite livable when properly organized. Here, we have been trained to expect individual bedrooms and close to 1000 sqft per person.

Training via standard of living, perhaps.  As our standard of living declines, living spaces are now getting smaller.

Standard of living is not directly connected to cost of living.

One important strategy for good living is to find inexpensive ways of living well. For example, use space efficiently so one can spend less on real estate and still have the same enjoyment from it. Or find interesting things to do with inexpensive food. Or find enjoyable recreation within bicycling distance, rather than flying to more distant destinations.