I feel the best living quarter space is a series of 3x2 rooms. It gives the opportunity to have a wide range of values to your rooms based on the quality and materials of the contents. Of course this is all dependent on what the walls and floors are made of.
This design houses 80 dwarves and is capable of handling tantrums pretty well.
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Key: O=Wall, S=Statue, B=Ballista, ▲=Up Ramp, F=Fortification, D=Door, <=Stairs
You will note that the main hall is covered by a ballista. As long as it is a direct route to your "Siege Quarters", a centralized location where your siege operatiors sleep, you will have respond times quick enough to deal with tantrums as they occur. The doors on each side hall prevent things from getting too completely out of hand. I advise against having more than 100 dwarves in one "wing", as that starts to put too many eggs in one basket. 80 seems like a good number for me before I build another wing, since usually I have to adjust my production to make my fortress more efficient at around that number, and it's easier just to add a new living quarters wing onto the expansion plans then.