ᐅ Floor plan for a 160 sqm urban villa – Requesting advice!
Created on: 28 Jan 2019 09:23
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Bauherrin92
Hello everyone,
we are planning to build an urban villa with 160 sqm (1720 sq ft) plus a basement in rural Bavaria. Since we are now in the crucial phase of floor plan design, we would really appreciate your opinions and suggestions for improvements.
The following issues concern us the most:
1. Arrangement of the house and garage on the plot: The garage has been deliberately placed on the west side to create distance from the neighbor. To catch the evening sun, the house has been set back. However, I wonder if this looks "good," as I have never seen such an arrangement before. We are also undecided whether the garage should be detached or attached to the house (possibly with access through the pantry?). On the plans, the garage is at the neighbor’s boundary. There is currently no house there.
2. The cloakroom and dressing room seem too small to comfortably place proper wardrobes and move around freely.
3. In general, I feel the overall design could still be improved, including the arrangement of windows.
Here is the questionnaire:
Development plan / restrictions
Plot size: 800 sqm (8,600 sq ft)
Slope: no
Floor area ratio: 0.35
Floor space index: 0.7
Building window, building line and boundary: 3 m (10 ft) to the street
Edge development: garage yes
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of storeys: 2
Roof style: open construction
Homeowners’ requirements
Style, roof type, building type: urban villa, 2 full storeys, hipped roof
Basement, storeys: basement, ground floor, first floor
Number of people, age: two adults, schoolchild, expecting a baby
Space requirements ground floor, upper floor: three bedrooms, spacious living-dining area, separate cloakroom, shower toilet on the ground floor
Office: none
Guest bedrooms per year: none
Open or closed architecture: open
Conservative or modern construction: modern
Open kitchen, kitchen island: yes
Number of dining seats: 4–10 (when guests visit)
Fireplace: yes
Garage, carport: prefabricated double garage
Other wishes / special features / daily routine, also reasons why this or that should or should not be included:
- Cloakroom in a niche
- Shower toilet on the ground floor, later for the teenage daughter
- Large children’s rooms with floor-to-ceiling windows facing the garden
- Dressing room in the master bedroom
- Pantry for yellow bags (recycling waste bags), vacuum cleaner, cleaning supplies, pasta stock, etc.
House design
Who made the plan: planner from a construction company
What do you particularly like? Why?
- Basement: fine as is
- Ground floor: large pantry, L-shaped kitchen/living/dining area
- Upper floor: large children’s rooms
What don’t you like? Why?
- Ground floor: layout of toilet and cloakroom
- Upper floor: dressing room and bathroom possibly too small
- detached garage
Preferred heating technology: undecided so far
If you had to give up something, which details/upgrades would you skip?
- Could give up: access from garage into the house
- Could not do without: pantry, dressing room, cloakroom
Why has the design turned out as it is now? Our wishes were implemented by the planner
We look forward to your advice!!!
P.S.: The red circle is supposed to indicate north, sorry, it couldn’t be done otherwise!
we are planning to build an urban villa with 160 sqm (1720 sq ft) plus a basement in rural Bavaria. Since we are now in the crucial phase of floor plan design, we would really appreciate your opinions and suggestions for improvements.
The following issues concern us the most:
1. Arrangement of the house and garage on the plot: The garage has been deliberately placed on the west side to create distance from the neighbor. To catch the evening sun, the house has been set back. However, I wonder if this looks "good," as I have never seen such an arrangement before. We are also undecided whether the garage should be detached or attached to the house (possibly with access through the pantry?). On the plans, the garage is at the neighbor’s boundary. There is currently no house there.
2. The cloakroom and dressing room seem too small to comfortably place proper wardrobes and move around freely.
3. In general, I feel the overall design could still be improved, including the arrangement of windows.
Here is the questionnaire:
Development plan / restrictions
Plot size: 800 sqm (8,600 sq ft)
Slope: no
Floor area ratio: 0.35
Floor space index: 0.7
Building window, building line and boundary: 3 m (10 ft) to the street
Edge development: garage yes
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of storeys: 2
Roof style: open construction
Homeowners’ requirements
Style, roof type, building type: urban villa, 2 full storeys, hipped roof
Basement, storeys: basement, ground floor, first floor
Number of people, age: two adults, schoolchild, expecting a baby
Space requirements ground floor, upper floor: three bedrooms, spacious living-dining area, separate cloakroom, shower toilet on the ground floor
Office: none
Guest bedrooms per year: none
Open or closed architecture: open
Conservative or modern construction: modern
Open kitchen, kitchen island: yes
Number of dining seats: 4–10 (when guests visit)
Fireplace: yes
Garage, carport: prefabricated double garage
Other wishes / special features / daily routine, also reasons why this or that should or should not be included:
- Cloakroom in a niche
- Shower toilet on the ground floor, later for the teenage daughter
- Large children’s rooms with floor-to-ceiling windows facing the garden
- Dressing room in the master bedroom
- Pantry for yellow bags (recycling waste bags), vacuum cleaner, cleaning supplies, pasta stock, etc.
House design
Who made the plan: planner from a construction company
What do you particularly like? Why?
- Basement: fine as is
- Ground floor: large pantry, L-shaped kitchen/living/dining area
- Upper floor: large children’s rooms
What don’t you like? Why?
- Ground floor: layout of toilet and cloakroom
- Upper floor: dressing room and bathroom possibly too small
- detached garage
Preferred heating technology: undecided so far
If you had to give up something, which details/upgrades would you skip?
- Could give up: access from garage into the house
- Could not do without: pantry, dressing room, cloakroom
Why has the design turned out as it is now? Our wishes were implemented by the planner
We look forward to your advice!!!
P.S.: The red circle is supposed to indicate north, sorry, it couldn’t be done otherwise!
So, let's recap the points mentioned by various users:
Garage placement is difficult – it has to stay as is.
Carport instead of a double garage – the husband insists on a double garage.
Bedroom/walk-in closet is difficult – we don’t need any more space.
Lost square meters – when we furnish, everything feels full.
Hallway large/staircase inconveniently placed – the staircase should not be moved.
Wardrobe too small/inconveniently placed – see previous point.
An architect might make sense – we will definitely build with the general contractor.
The floor plan is not good, but not bad either.
Rethink the floor plan fundamentally – we tried, but none of the others fit.
No offense meant, but this will be difficult here. What bothers you is, in my opinion, almost impossible to change without a willingness to fundamentally alter the existing design. I don’t see that willingness at the moment. You seem very fixed in your position.
But maybe @kaho674 will actually come up with something in a feverish rush.
Garage placement is difficult – it has to stay as is.
Carport instead of a double garage – the husband insists on a double garage.
Bedroom/walk-in closet is difficult – we don’t need any more space.
Lost square meters – when we furnish, everything feels full.
Hallway large/staircase inconveniently placed – the staircase should not be moved.
Wardrobe too small/inconveniently placed – see previous point.
An architect might make sense – we will definitely build with the general contractor.
The floor plan is not good, but not bad either.
Rethink the floor plan fundamentally – we tried, but none of the others fit.
No offense meant, but this will be difficult here. What bothers you is, in my opinion, almost impossible to change without a willingness to fundamentally alter the existing design. I don’t see that willingness at the moment. You seem very fixed in your position.
But maybe @kaho674 will actually come up with something in a feverish rush.
B
Bauherrin9228 Jan 2019 22:45I would like to address a few points @face26
We really don’t need more space in the bedroom. In our current apartment, we have about 56 cm (22 inches) around the bed to walk. That might bother some people, but not us at all. Therefore, I find a bedroom of about 11 or 12 m² (120 or 130 sq ft) perfectly sufficient for us. The walk-in closet is difficult, I agree with you there.
After measuring all our furniture and drawing it into the floor plan, I can say that everything fits. It doesn’t look “fully furnished” at all; the furniture in the floor plan is shown much smaller than reality. So I don’t see it as lost square meters.
The stairs can definitely be repositioned; I didn’t say otherwise, just that the living room would then become narrower.
I also think it looks awful. How about rotating the WC? The WC would then be between the exterior wall and the stairs. The wardrobe could be placed in front of the WC. Minus the WC door, you could have a wardrobe about 1.60 m (5 feet 3 inches) wide here. What do you think?
I don’t take the criticism negatively.
Of course, I would change the existing design, but I can’t make use of all suggestions—for example, putting the garage on the east side, or placing the utility room on the upper floor, etc.
What I’ve tried so far is changing the building’s exterior dimensions (11 x 9 m (36 by 30 feet)), but it’s taking longer than expected. I’m trying to do it to scale in Sweet Home 3D with furniture. Also, I’m trying to keep the current exterior dimensions but rearrange the rooms. It’s taking time.
face26 schrieb:
Bedroom/walk-in closet is difficult – we don’t need more
We really don’t need more space in the bedroom. In our current apartment, we have about 56 cm (22 inches) around the bed to walk. That might bother some people, but not us at all. Therefore, I find a bedroom of about 11 or 12 m² (120 or 130 sq ft) perfectly sufficient for us. The walk-in closet is difficult, I agree with you there.
face26 schrieb:
Lost square meters – when we furnish everything looks full
After measuring all our furniture and drawing it into the floor plan, I can say that everything fits. It doesn’t look “fully furnished” at all; the furniture in the floor plan is shown much smaller than reality. So I don’t see it as lost square meters.
face26 schrieb:
Hallway too large/stairs poorly positioned – stairs should not be moved
The stairs can definitely be repositioned; I didn’t say otherwise, just that the living room would then become narrower.
face26 schrieb:
Wardrobe too small/poorly positioned, see previous point
I also think it looks awful. How about rotating the WC? The WC would then be between the exterior wall and the stairs. The wardrobe could be placed in front of the WC. Minus the WC door, you could have a wardrobe about 1.60 m (5 feet 3 inches) wide here. What do you think?
face26 schrieb:
No offense, but this will be difficult here. What bothers you is, in my opinion, almost impossible to change without fundamentally altering the existing design. I don’t see the willingness to do that at the moment. You seem very set in your ways.
I don’t take the criticism negatively.
Of course, I would change the existing design, but I can’t make use of all suggestions—for example, putting the garage on the east side, or placing the utility room on the upper floor, etc.
What I’ve tried so far is changing the building’s exterior dimensions (11 x 9 m (36 by 30 feet)), but it’s taking longer than expected. I’m trying to do it to scale in Sweet Home 3D with furniture. Also, I’m trying to keep the current exterior dimensions but rearrange the rooms. It’s taking time.
Bauherrin92 schrieb:
In our current apartment, we have 56 cm (22 inches) of space to walk around the bedBut as you get older, you’ll need the side of the bed as a place to sit, and for that you need more space.
You don’t have to be senile for that.
Right now, your bedroom’s square meters are used exactly where they don’t need to be.
A bedroom measuring 4 x 3 meters (13 x 10 feet) is not the same as 3 x 4 meters (10 x 13 feet).
If anything, the bed would have to be rotated, which means moving the window to the other exterior wall...
Bauherrin92 schrieb:
So I find a bedroom of 11 or 12 square meters (118 or 129 square feet) perfectly sufficient for us. The walk-in closet is tricky, I agree with you on that.That means: rethink the layout.
Bauherrin92 schrieb:
What I’ve tried so far is changing the house’s external dimensions (11 x 9 meters) (36 x 30 feet). It’s taking longer than expected. I’m trying to be accurate with Sweet Home 3D.Use pencil and graph paper—that’s enough to get a first impression.
We recently had a 10 x 9.5 meter (33 x 31 feet) house here, where the utility room and an office had to fit on the ground floor... that somehow worked out in the end. But it was a matter of weeks of work and very exhausting for the original poster.
Don’t omit the note about the lifting station! Since you want a toilet in the basement (KG), you will need a sewage-compatible pump with a macerator, meaning you need a lifting station. So now this small room will cost you not the initially expected 3,000 euros but already 6,000 euros. The amount is really not worth it for a toilet that will be used only about 1 to 5 times per year.
Bauherrin92 schrieb:
I would like to address some points, @face26
We really don’t need more space in the bedroom. In our current apartment, there is 56 cm (22 inches) of walking space around the bed. Some might find that restricted, but it doesn’t bother us at all. Therefore, I find a bedroom of 11 or 12 square meters (about 118 or 129 square feet) perfectly adequate for us. The walk-in closet is tricky; I agree with you on that.
After measuring all our furniture and placing it in the floor plan, I can say that everything fits. It’s not “fully furnished,” as the furniture in the plan is shown much smaller than in reality. So, I don’t see this as wasted space.
The staircase can definitely be moved; I haven’t said otherwise, only that the living room would become narrower as a result.
I also think it looks awful. How about rotating the WC once? Then the WC would be situated between the exterior wall and the staircase. The wardrobe would be in front of the WC. Minus the WC door, you could fit a wardrobe approximately 1.60 m (5 feet 3 inches) wide there. Any opinions on that?
I don’t take the criticism negatively. Of course, I would change the existing draft, but I can’t make use of all the suggestions, like putting the garage on the east side or the utility room on the upper floor, etc.
What I have tried so far is to change the external dimensions of the house (11 x 9 m) (36 x 30 feet), but it takes longer than expected. I’m trying to do it to scale with Sweet Home 3D and add furniture. Also, trying the current external dimensions with a different room layout. It’s taking some time. Well, maybe it sounded different... I’m curious and will wait to see what comes up. In my opinion, moving the staircase could be a good start.
face26 schrieb:
But maybe @kaho674 is actually coming up with something great in a feverish state I'll throw out an idea, mostly just to get the original poster to think outside the box a bit. However, I have a headache, watery eyes, and a sore throat – you know how it is. Not sure if this makes any sense.Similar topics