Some of them are nice, it's true, but I'm mostly thinking of the 19th-century Mietskasernen (rental barracks) where the original objective was to pack as many p

Some of them are nice, it's true, but I'm mostly thinking of the 19th-century Mietskasernen (rental barracks) where the original objective was to pack as many people into the space as possible. I think part of the problem is that they were originally expected to have people sleeping in every room except maybe the kitchen, so you wouldn't want to have to walk through what is now the living/dining room to get to another room, so you have to reach every room from the hall. So the hall can be long, twisty, narrow and dark... as long as it lets everyone get from the staircase to their bedroom.