ᐅ Positioning the house, garage, or carport on the property

Created on: 14 Aug 2018 08:29

Development Plan/Restrictions
Plot size: 883m² (9500 sq ft)
Slope: gentle slope, about 1m (3.3 ft) rise over 10m (33 ft)
Building window, building line and boundary: standard
Edge construction: possible for garage
Number of parking spaces: 2 in the garage
Number of floors: 2 full stories
Roof type: hipped roof
Style: modern
Orientation: south
Maximum heights/limits: based on the existing terrain according to the district office

Client Requirements
The floor plan of the house is fixed, but it will be completely mirrored from west to east

House Design
Designed by:
- Architect
What do you particularly like? Why? The front door located between the garage and the house
What do you dislike? Why?
Estimated price according to architect/planner: 420,000 (our estimate about 500,000 all in)
Personal price limit for the house, including fixtures: 500,000
Preferred heating system: air-source heat pump

If you have to give up something, which details or additions
- can you give up: nothing
- cannot give up: garage, workshop

What is the most important fundamental question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?
The floor plan is basically fixed, but for noise (street) and privacy reasons, we want to mirror the whole house so the garage, front door, bay window, house, and terrace are positioned from west to east.

Unfortunately, this has sparked many discussions because the plot was gifted to us by family whose house behind is slightly elevated (about 3m (10 ft), on the north side). They fear their house will no longer be visible from the south if we move the garage to within 2–3m (6.5–10 ft) of the western boundary. However, if we move it back 6–7m (20–23 ft) to where the current house corner is, there is about 80m² (860 sq ft) of "wasted space" between the boundary, street, driveway, and garage. Do you have any ideas on how to make use of this space or avoid it altogether without compromising the rest of the design?

The images still show the old version, as we will only redesign once we find a solution...

Thank you very much!

Ground plan of a house with living area, kitchen, terrace, and garage.

Site plan of the property parcels with boundary lines and numbers

Site plan of a property with a red outline of the building

South elevation of a two-story house with garage and garden.

Grantlhaua21 Aug 2018 08:23

#25

Climbee schrieb:
We are also building on my parents' property, and I am all too familiar with the discussions that arise from that. I also fully understand the situation where you have to be grateful just to have a plot to build on, because there are none available on the market. So sometimes you have to swallow a few inconvenience.
That’s why I recommend a temporary carport.

Even a carport wouldn’t solve the discussion issue because it is just as "opaque" as a garage. Since we planned the front door between the garage and the house, we can’t just skip the garage easily. That would look odd first.

Climbee21 Aug 2018 08:28

#26

Then just live with the odd appearance for a few years. I would look for an interim solution that satisfies both sides.

Apart from that, I agree with Kaho that a living room facing northeast is not necessarily ideal (in our house, the pantry and guest toilet are located there).

Grantlhaua21 Aug 2018 08:36

#27

Climbee schrieb:
Apart from that, I agree with Kaho that having a living room facing northeast isn’t exactly ideal (we have the pantry and guest bathroom there)

What do you have in the northwest then? Our toilet and office are completely north-facing, but I simply don’t have enough space on the south side to fit dining, cooking, and the living room, especially if we want a kitchen island.

For me, it was also essential to have the kitchen on the south side. Sure, I could swap the living room and kitchen now, but I really want to keep the routes to the garden (the vegetable and herb bed are planned right outside the door) and to the terrace as short as possible.

Climbee schrieb:
Then just live with the odd appearance for a few years. I would look for a (temporary) solution that satisfies both sides.

The solution now is simple: we keep a 6 m (20 feet) distance from the property boundary and then start with the garage. This way, the house complies with the setback requirements exactly as it did before reversing the floor plan. We will still do the reversal to move the terrace away from the street.

Grantlhaua21 Aug 2018 08:49

#28

kaho674 schrieb:
Living room then in the northeast (could it get any worse?) and the terrace shifting to the southeast, and so on. Honestly, who are you trying to convince here? Go ahead if it works so well for you. But we certainly won’t tell you that this is a good solution, because it’s not.

And this doesn’t mean that I don’t value your opinion, Katja, but I also don’t see any way to provide optimal natural light to all rooms without compromising other requirements (distance from the road, entrance area, straight staircase, …).

kaho67421 Aug 2018 09:05

#29

Grantlhaua schrieb:
without discarding other criteria (distance to the street, entrance area, straight staircase, ...)

In the end, building a house is always a matter of balancing the key requirements. However, it is often difficult to abandon a working plan and start over, especially when something conflicts with it, as in your case. But one should avoid the mistake of settling for something just because it’s easier to simply mirror the layout quickly.

kbt0921 Aug 2018 15:15

#30

I have to agree with @Grantlhaua. My first thought about the idea of "mirroring" was also... no, that won’t work at all. But then I took a closer look and followed the reasoning.

Grantlhaua schrieb:
That’s why the living room area is deliberately oriented to the north to give the kitchen and dining room the south side, where natural light is much more important to us than it is in the living room. If I mirror all the rooms, I don't have to redesign everything, right? The kitchen and dining room remain facing south, and personally, it doesn’t matter to me whether the bedroom on the upper floor is located in the northeast or northwest. The children’s rooms are also oriented one towards the southeast and one towards the southwest, so the two rooms simply switch places.

Or rather, she had already thought it through that way.

A proper retreat living room doesn’t really need much sun or natural light. And I also agree with the approach for the other rooms.

I still don’t really like the combination of the tall cabinet wall/pantry.

ᐅ Positioning the house, garage, or carport on the property

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