ᐅ Floor plan for a 160 sqm urban villa – Requesting advice!
Created on: 28 Jan 2019 09:23
B
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!
Bauherrin92 schrieb:
Yes, all these details were contractually agreed upon.face26 schrieb:
Huh? Now I'm completely confused...
If everything is already signed... why are we still planning here? I can hardly imagine a general contractor creating a totally different design for the same prices and conditions... or am I misunderstanding something?That shouldn’t be an issue now.
In our case, the reference house was also used as the basis for the contract.
Moving walls around without significantly affecting the structural engineering, or shifting a window about a meter (3 feet) further… all of that was possible because the square meter area, meaning the basic building footprint, didn’t change.
However, not all general contractors are as flexible as ours.
ypg schrieb:
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This shouldn’t be a problem.
In our case, the reference house was used as the basis for the contract.
Moving walls without significantly affecting the structural integrity, shifting a window about a meter further… all of this was possible because the total square meterage, meaning the building shell, remained unchanged.
However, not all general contractors are as flexible as ours. I would be more interested to know exactly how it works in this case, because on one hand, I also doubt that every general contractor considers this “included,” and on the other hand, we have already talked about different exterior dimensions and extensions here… and there’s no point in putting in the effort if you know the building structure is fixed.
I am an empathetic and considerate person who simply does not want, for example, @kaho674 to have to go through the effort described in post #60 while severely sick with the flu, only for it to be pointless because it is not included in the contract.
face26 schrieb:
I’m quite curious about how it actually works in this case, because on one hand I also doubt that every general contractor considers this “included,” and on the other hand, we’ve already discussed different external dimensions and extensions... and you can save yourself the effort if you know the building shell is fixed.
I am an empathetic and compassionate person who simply doesn’t want to expect, for example, @kaho674 to put in so much effort as shown in post #60 while severely ill with the flu, only for it to be wasted because it’s not included in the contract. In case you missed it: I also invest a lot of free time in designs. Not during the day (my job doesn’t allow that), but in the evenings. Whether as sketches or on the computer — and I get frustrated too when a topic starter says after many posts that everything is fixed.
But the topic starter said here that the floor plan is not fixed.
That means the floor plan, not the house itself.
She expressed dissatisfaction at certain points. Those needed to be changed or looked at.
And that’s completely fine.
This doesn’t significantly affect the construction costs.
Personally, I haven’t contributed much here and have only been following the thread casually...
... except that I wouldn’t make the storage room door accessible from the kitchen.
So I try, already from the first posts, to gauge how standardized the topic starter’s thinking is, how important a new proposal is to them, how fixed their mindset is, or which options are still possible at all.
The last point, as I understand it, was mentioned — whether the discussion has since developed differently... I don’t know... I haven’t read everything.
ypg schrieb:
In case you missed it: I also invest a lot of my free time in designs. Although not during the day (my job doesn’t allow it), I do so in the evenings. Whether as a sketch or on the computer – and I also get frustrated when, after countless posts, the original poster says that everything is already set in stone.Did I just step on your proverbial toes?
I’m not sure where your accusation against me is (or if you think I’m accusing you of something). But I have been following the thread from the beginning, and when after 19 pages it is casually mentioned that everything has already been signed off, it’s quite legitimate to ask for clarification on exactly what that means. The original poster never said the external dimensions were fixed and even tried working with a different building volume, for example.
So it’s reasonable to ask if that is still possible at all.
Edit: I could have used you as an example as well, but the post by @kaho674 just stuck in my mind. And as I said… it would be a shame if someone (including you) puts in effort and it turns out it’s not possible because something has already been contractually limited or restricted.
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