Hello,
My wife and I visited a model home park for prefabricated houses yesterday, and we noticed that each house offered various features and floor plans whose practical benefits I don’t quite understand. That’s why I’m starting this thread, hoping you can explain the advantages of these choices or point out what I might be missing and why it still makes sense to design a house that way:
1. Almost every house had floor-to-ceiling windows installed. What’s the purpose of these? I imagine they would be terrible both in summer and winter. Wouldn’t it get extremely hot in summer? And in winter, don’t you constantly have to lower the blinds so that anyone passing by can’t look directly into the living room or inside the house? Also, isn’t the effort to clean those windows huge? Am I missing something? Do they have advantages that I don’t see?
2. There wasn’t a single house where the kitchen and dining area were separated from the living space; at best, the kitchen was separated from the dining area. I understand that having everything open makes the space appear larger and is better for hosting many people, but isn’t it very impractical? If I’m frying or cooking something in the kitchen, doesn’t the whole living room end up smelling like food? It would also bother me that as soon as my wife or I have guests over, the other person couldn’t sit in the living room and watch TV quietly, for example. This might sound a bit picky, but for me, it’s important that everyone can invite their friends without the other person always being within earshot or needing to get out of the way somehow. Why are open-plan ground floors so common? What are the real advantages?
3. The balconies on the upper floor are always accessible from one of the children’s bedrooms and the parents’ bedroom. Doesn’t that significantly affect privacy? I can’t imagine it’s great if my child can constantly knock on our bedroom door via the balcony, for example. Also, if you have two children, wouldn’t the one without a balcony be at a disadvantage?
I don’t want to bias you with my opinions here—I’m completely open to your views because I’d like to be convinced of the benefits. So I would like to know your reasons for including such features in your plans. Alternatively, has anyone built in a more “traditional” way and can speak to the practicality of these layout choices?
Best regards
My wife and I visited a model home park for prefabricated houses yesterday, and we noticed that each house offered various features and floor plans whose practical benefits I don’t quite understand. That’s why I’m starting this thread, hoping you can explain the advantages of these choices or point out what I might be missing and why it still makes sense to design a house that way:
1. Almost every house had floor-to-ceiling windows installed. What’s the purpose of these? I imagine they would be terrible both in summer and winter. Wouldn’t it get extremely hot in summer? And in winter, don’t you constantly have to lower the blinds so that anyone passing by can’t look directly into the living room or inside the house? Also, isn’t the effort to clean those windows huge? Am I missing something? Do they have advantages that I don’t see?
2. There wasn’t a single house where the kitchen and dining area were separated from the living space; at best, the kitchen was separated from the dining area. I understand that having everything open makes the space appear larger and is better for hosting many people, but isn’t it very impractical? If I’m frying or cooking something in the kitchen, doesn’t the whole living room end up smelling like food? It would also bother me that as soon as my wife or I have guests over, the other person couldn’t sit in the living room and watch TV quietly, for example. This might sound a bit picky, but for me, it’s important that everyone can invite their friends without the other person always being within earshot or needing to get out of the way somehow. Why are open-plan ground floors so common? What are the real advantages?
3. The balconies on the upper floor are always accessible from one of the children’s bedrooms and the parents’ bedroom. Doesn’t that significantly affect privacy? I can’t imagine it’s great if my child can constantly knock on our bedroom door via the balcony, for example. Also, if you have two children, wouldn’t the one without a balcony be at a disadvantage?
I don’t want to bias you with my opinions here—I’m completely open to your views because I’d like to be convinced of the benefits. So I would like to know your reasons for including such features in your plans. Alternatively, has anyone built in a more “traditional” way and can speak to the practicality of these layout choices?
Best regards
kaho674 schrieb:
just because I want to unload drinks from the car into the house once a month? That’s what men were made for, after all! And then he created someone else to clean the floor-to-ceiling windows *LOL*
Wickie schrieb:
But for some people it seems mandatory: everything floor-to-ceiling, and suddenly everyone can look inside – But then a 2 m (6.5 ft) high fence, so no one can steal the cream from your cake just by looking. Whether this is just inconsistency or already dialectics, only philosophers probably know.
kaho674 schrieb:
What I still don’t quite understand and keep seeing lately: what is a backup kitchen? It’s probably a logical consequence of the show kitchen trend, where the less photogenic part is separated. From the living room, you see the microwave and takeout kitchen; the cooking kitchen is then behind it.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
KingSong schrieb:
We are also getting a second sink in the island.... And I am almost more excited about the kitchen than the rest of the house [emoji16] I feel the same about both.
KingSong schrieb:
We’re also getting a second sink in the island.... And I’m actually more excited about the kitchen than the rest of the house [emoji16]What do you use a second sink for?
Best regards,
Sabine
Curly schrieb:
What is a second sink needed for?
Best regards
SabineI don’t know either.
But what I notice is that it seems to be the men who like it. Women, including myself, can do without this quirk. Cooking is my hobby, and I do it almost every day.
Musketier schrieb:
In our house, on the sides where there is no terrace, often only narrow floor-to-ceiling windows are installed. When these windows are half-covered with pleated blinds, in my opinion they let in less light than, for example, a double casement window. Well, that's not surprising. More transparent surface means more light. I find that quite obvious. Comparing apples and oranges just creates a fruit salad—it’s healthy and tasty, but doesn’t help here [emoji4]
Regarding the case you described—narrow floor-to-ceiling windows versus much wider windows with a sill—I agree with you.
In my home, the floor-to-ceiling elements are at least 1.01 meters (3.3 feet) wide and 2.56 meters (8.4 feet) high, and the rooms are large enough to accommodate furniture placement. In the bedroom and dressing room, our architects planned windows with a sill, which makes sense for us. I think the choice also depends on local conditions, so it’s hard to generalize. For a bedroom facing a park-like garden with no visibility from outside, I would find wide floor-to-ceiling windows very nice for the view, while windows with a sill would be less ideal—or vice versa.
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