Hello everyone,
My partner and I have finally purchased a large plot of land measuring 437 sqm (4700 sq ft) in Munich-Eching, and we will soon be building our prefabricated single-family house with Streif Haus. The plan is for approximately 145 sqm (1560 sq ft) of living space with dimensions of 9.96 m x 8.71 m (32.7 ft x 28.6 ft). Increasing this is simply not possible within our budget—for example, adding 1 meter (3.3 ft) on one side would cost roughly an additional €30,000.
So far, I have created all the floor plans using a software tool. Last Friday, we had our first meeting with the architect. Unfortunately, he dismissed several of our wishes:
- The gallery/open space over the upper floor,
- The layout of rooms on the upper floor (both children’s rooms are planned to face south, while the bedroom and bathroom face north, although we would prefer the opposite),
- All terrace requests,
- The design of the bathroom (we wanted a T-shaped layout with the sink set slightly into the room, the toilet and shower behind it, and a freestanding bathtub in the room), etc.
I have attached my plans for the ground floor and upper floor. Since the plot is not rectangular but rather irregularly shaped, positioning the house alone is a challenge because we naturally want the garden and the largest windows in the living room and kitchen to face south. In the attached site plan, the house is still positioned quite centrally (12 x 9 m / 39.4 x 29.5 ft). We will move it as far as possible to the right, towards the east.
We also considered changing the type of staircase (for example, to a half-landing staircase), but according to the architect, the straight staircase belongs to the "Cityvilla" house type by STREIF. I would appreciate your opinions on this. If I change the type of staircase, the entire floor plan will be discarded and the design will have to start from scratch — which is fine, as this is a “major” adjustment.
The architect is planning the entrance not on the south side directly from Schlossberg street, but on the north side: you would approach the property via the street, the house would run sideways along the garage, and you enter after the bend on the north side. So, opposite to what is shown in the site plan. This is quite a long way around. What do you think about this?
You will find comments below with questions. Feedback on the floor plan is welcome!
Building Regulations/Restrictions
Plot size: 437 sqm
Slope: none
Site coverage ratio
Floor area ratio
Building envelope, building line and boundary: Building line with house in the northwest (not yet accurately positioned on the site plan)
Edge development: As far northeast on the plot as possible, maintaining the legally required 6 m (20 ft) setback from neighbors.
Number of parking spaces: Planned 1 carport, 1 garage.
Number of floors: 2 (without basement)
Roof type: Hip roof or gable roof
Architectural style: modern
Orientation: southwest
Maximum heights/limits: n/a
Other requirements: n/a
Homeowner Requirements
Style, roof type, building type: Prefabricated house by STREIF, type "Cityvilla," no bay windows, rectangular
Basement, floors: No basement, 1.5 floors (no roof slopes, with roof hatch to a small, non-habitable attic)
Number of residents, age: 2 persons, 36 and 30 years old.
Space requirements for ground floor/upstairs:
Ground floor: large living room, open kitchen and dining area, utility/technical/pantry room (connected to kitchen), guest bathroom, hallway, guest room/office/hobby room.
Upper floor: bedroom, 2 children’s rooms, large bathroom, possibly a gallery
Office: Family use or home office? Both — upstairs for office (sometimes music is played here), downstairs is planned as a hobby room with fitness equipment. This may change when children are around.
Number of guest overnight stays per year: 10 nights
Open or closed architecture: open
Conservative or modern construction: modern
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open, preferably with kitchen island and access to utility/pantry room
Number of dining seats: 4-6
Fireplace: desired but still in planning—preliminarily included, to be built later due to priorities and budget.
Music/stereo wall: yes, with floor-standing speakers and external subwoofer.
Balcony, roof terrace: no. (Initially wanted, but considering the cost/benefit since we have a large garden.)
Garage, carport: First a garage, then a carport (2 parking spaces are mandatory).
Vegetable garden, greenhouse: no.
Further wishes/particularities/daily routine, including reasons for preferences or exclusions:
The guest/fitness room is deliberately planned large to accommodate several exercise machines. Possibly a table tennis table will also be used in winter. The necessity of this is still being discussed. There is no basement. Later, a garden shed will be built in the yard.
Since we have limited space, any tips for storing items typically kept in a basement are very welcome!
A walk-in closet in the bedroom is desired.
House Design
Who designed the plan: Me, using a tool.
- Architect:
We already had a meeting with the architect. Several wishes were discouraged by him, such as a covered garage (east side), covered terrace in the garden (southwest), and the gallery on the first floor.
- The architect recommends having all sanitary facilities on one "level," meaning guest bathroom/technical room on the ground floor directly below the bathroom upstairs.
- He suggests placing the children’s rooms facing south rather than the bedroom or bathroom, as we initially wanted. (Children spend more time playing in their rooms with sunlight.) However, we would prefer sunlight in the bedroom and bathroom (bathroom planned with a frosted window) for a brighter and more relaxing atmosphere.
- Builder’s planner: Prefabricated house will be built with STREIF Haus. The architect is a STREIF architect.
- Do-it-yourself: We purchased the FastFertigPLUS product, meaning wall, floor, and garden work will be done by ourselves. Since I am very handy, wall and floor work should not be an issue. We are still considering whether to hire professionals for terrace construction and garden landscaping.
What do you particularly like?
Why? Large plot with a single-family house (for Munich standards).
The open spatial concept with a large living room, dining area, and open kitchen layout.
What do you dislike? Why?
The hallway takes up a lot of space, especially upstairs. If the hallway is restricted to the front side, the rooms can be made larger at the expense of openness (see attached test design). Not sure if this makes sense or if it just limits upstairs space too much.
The plot is large but irregular, making it challenging to position the house facing south while maintaining minimum setbacks.
Cost estimate according to architect/planner: €306,000 for the completed house excluding ancillary and planning costs.
Personal price limit for the house, including fittings: About €15,000 can still be budgeted. We expect higher costs after material selection, especially for sanitary fittings, sliding windows, and electronic blinds on the ground floor (upper floor with "standard" design).
Photovoltaic system with battery storage (including subsidy via KfW 40+) and garage are still under consideration.
Preferred heating technology: Air-to-air heat pump. Underfloor heating in the bathroom.
Possibly adding a photovoltaic system with battery. We will gather more information regarding cost/benefit.
If you had to give up on, which details/extensions
- could you do without: Gallery on the upper floor to enlarge the bedroom and children’s rooms. However, this reduces the optics and the bright and open feeling.
- could you not do without: Photovoltaic system, carport (in addition to garage)
Why did the design turn out the way it is? For example:
Standard design from planner? Self-created.
Which wishes from the architect were implemented? All sanitary facilities aligned vertically. Waiver of covered terraces, balconies, or roof overhangs. Entrance on the north side, meaning not directly from the street but around the house at a 90-degree angle. Does this make sense?
A mix of many examples from various magazines? Partly inspired by the STREIF show house in Cologne, for example the gallery.
What do you think makes it particularly good or bad?
Since it is mostly my own plan, hard to say. The architect plans the exit through the large window in the dining area (which makes sense). However, this leads to the largest garden area but closer to the street.
You have to walk briefly around the house to reach the "main" garden (basically an exit through the living room). I am not yet fully satisfied with the layout and access to the garden.
My partner and I have finally purchased a large plot of land measuring 437 sqm (4700 sq ft) in Munich-Eching, and we will soon be building our prefabricated single-family house with Streif Haus. The plan is for approximately 145 sqm (1560 sq ft) of living space with dimensions of 9.96 m x 8.71 m (32.7 ft x 28.6 ft). Increasing this is simply not possible within our budget—for example, adding 1 meter (3.3 ft) on one side would cost roughly an additional €30,000.
So far, I have created all the floor plans using a software tool. Last Friday, we had our first meeting with the architect. Unfortunately, he dismissed several of our wishes:
- The gallery/open space over the upper floor,
- The layout of rooms on the upper floor (both children’s rooms are planned to face south, while the bedroom and bathroom face north, although we would prefer the opposite),
- All terrace requests,
- The design of the bathroom (we wanted a T-shaped layout with the sink set slightly into the room, the toilet and shower behind it, and a freestanding bathtub in the room), etc.
I have attached my plans for the ground floor and upper floor. Since the plot is not rectangular but rather irregularly shaped, positioning the house alone is a challenge because we naturally want the garden and the largest windows in the living room and kitchen to face south. In the attached site plan, the house is still positioned quite centrally (12 x 9 m / 39.4 x 29.5 ft). We will move it as far as possible to the right, towards the east.
We also considered changing the type of staircase (for example, to a half-landing staircase), but according to the architect, the straight staircase belongs to the "Cityvilla" house type by STREIF. I would appreciate your opinions on this. If I change the type of staircase, the entire floor plan will be discarded and the design will have to start from scratch — which is fine, as this is a “major” adjustment.
The architect is planning the entrance not on the south side directly from Schlossberg street, but on the north side: you would approach the property via the street, the house would run sideways along the garage, and you enter after the bend on the north side. So, opposite to what is shown in the site plan. This is quite a long way around. What do you think about this?
You will find comments below with questions. Feedback on the floor plan is welcome!
Building Regulations/Restrictions
Plot size: 437 sqm
Slope: none
Site coverage ratio
Floor area ratio
Building envelope, building line and boundary: Building line with house in the northwest (not yet accurately positioned on the site plan)
Edge development: As far northeast on the plot as possible, maintaining the legally required 6 m (20 ft) setback from neighbors.
Number of parking spaces: Planned 1 carport, 1 garage.
Number of floors: 2 (without basement)
Roof type: Hip roof or gable roof
Architectural style: modern
Orientation: southwest
Maximum heights/limits: n/a
Other requirements: n/a
Homeowner Requirements
Style, roof type, building type: Prefabricated house by STREIF, type "Cityvilla," no bay windows, rectangular
Basement, floors: No basement, 1.5 floors (no roof slopes, with roof hatch to a small, non-habitable attic)
Number of residents, age: 2 persons, 36 and 30 years old.
Space requirements for ground floor/upstairs:
Ground floor: large living room, open kitchen and dining area, utility/technical/pantry room (connected to kitchen), guest bathroom, hallway, guest room/office/hobby room.
Upper floor: bedroom, 2 children’s rooms, large bathroom, possibly a gallery
Office: Family use or home office? Both — upstairs for office (sometimes music is played here), downstairs is planned as a hobby room with fitness equipment. This may change when children are around.
Number of guest overnight stays per year: 10 nights
Open or closed architecture: open
Conservative or modern construction: modern
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open, preferably with kitchen island and access to utility/pantry room
Number of dining seats: 4-6
Fireplace: desired but still in planning—preliminarily included, to be built later due to priorities and budget.
Music/stereo wall: yes, with floor-standing speakers and external subwoofer.
Balcony, roof terrace: no. (Initially wanted, but considering the cost/benefit since we have a large garden.)
Garage, carport: First a garage, then a carport (2 parking spaces are mandatory).
Vegetable garden, greenhouse: no.
Further wishes/particularities/daily routine, including reasons for preferences or exclusions:
The guest/fitness room is deliberately planned large to accommodate several exercise machines. Possibly a table tennis table will also be used in winter. The necessity of this is still being discussed. There is no basement. Later, a garden shed will be built in the yard.
Since we have limited space, any tips for storing items typically kept in a basement are very welcome!
A walk-in closet in the bedroom is desired.
House Design
Who designed the plan: Me, using a tool.
- Architect:
We already had a meeting with the architect. Several wishes were discouraged by him, such as a covered garage (east side), covered terrace in the garden (southwest), and the gallery on the first floor.
- The architect recommends having all sanitary facilities on one "level," meaning guest bathroom/technical room on the ground floor directly below the bathroom upstairs.
- He suggests placing the children’s rooms facing south rather than the bedroom or bathroom, as we initially wanted. (Children spend more time playing in their rooms with sunlight.) However, we would prefer sunlight in the bedroom and bathroom (bathroom planned with a frosted window) for a brighter and more relaxing atmosphere.
- Builder’s planner: Prefabricated house will be built with STREIF Haus. The architect is a STREIF architect.
- Do-it-yourself: We purchased the FastFertigPLUS product, meaning wall, floor, and garden work will be done by ourselves. Since I am very handy, wall and floor work should not be an issue. We are still considering whether to hire professionals for terrace construction and garden landscaping.
What do you particularly like?
Why? Large plot with a single-family house (for Munich standards).
The open spatial concept with a large living room, dining area, and open kitchen layout.
What do you dislike? Why?
The hallway takes up a lot of space, especially upstairs. If the hallway is restricted to the front side, the rooms can be made larger at the expense of openness (see attached test design). Not sure if this makes sense or if it just limits upstairs space too much.
The plot is large but irregular, making it challenging to position the house facing south while maintaining minimum setbacks.
Cost estimate according to architect/planner: €306,000 for the completed house excluding ancillary and planning costs.
Personal price limit for the house, including fittings: About €15,000 can still be budgeted. We expect higher costs after material selection, especially for sanitary fittings, sliding windows, and electronic blinds on the ground floor (upper floor with "standard" design).
Photovoltaic system with battery storage (including subsidy via KfW 40+) and garage are still under consideration.
Preferred heating technology: Air-to-air heat pump. Underfloor heating in the bathroom.
Possibly adding a photovoltaic system with battery. We will gather more information regarding cost/benefit.
If you had to give up on, which details/extensions
- could you do without: Gallery on the upper floor to enlarge the bedroom and children’s rooms. However, this reduces the optics and the bright and open feeling.
- could you not do without: Photovoltaic system, carport (in addition to garage)
Why did the design turn out the way it is? For example:
Standard design from planner? Self-created.
Which wishes from the architect were implemented? All sanitary facilities aligned vertically. Waiver of covered terraces, balconies, or roof overhangs. Entrance on the north side, meaning not directly from the street but around the house at a 90-degree angle. Does this make sense?
A mix of many examples from various magazines? Partly inspired by the STREIF show house in Cologne, for example the gallery.
What do you think makes it particularly good or bad?
Since it is mostly my own plan, hard to say. The architect plans the exit through the large window in the dining area (which makes sense). However, this leads to the largest garden area but closer to the street.
You have to walk briefly around the house to reach the "main" garden (basically an exit through the living room). I am not yet fully satisfied with the layout and access to the garden.
I don’t see any elevation details in the site plan. I can’t really interpret the house profile shown there, but at first glance, it doesn’t indicate a hillside location (?). Is there a (new) development plan or is it a zone 34 area? It seems to me that this concerns the development of a single unused corner plot subdivided into three building lots.
Where it is drawn, there’s no problem—difficulties arise only if you insist on building on the south street lot with a south-facing garden. That wouldn’t work here, especially if the house is rectangular—but it doesn’t have to. Compare here: https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/hausplanung-auf-vorhandenem-Grundstück.24834/
But then you shouldn’t get caught up falling in love with a model home whose conceptual design is different within its series.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
kaho674 schrieb:
You’re already having trouble placing your small house.
Where it is drawn, there’s no problem—difficulties arise only if you insist on building on the south street lot with a south-facing garden. That wouldn’t work here, especially if the house is rectangular—but it doesn’t have to. Compare here: https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/hausplanung-auf-vorhandenem-Grundstück.24834/
kaho674 schrieb:
Of course, for small houses it makes sense to choose a stair design that requires the least space.
But then you shouldn’t get caught up falling in love with a model home whose conceptual design is different within its series.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
Hello everyone,
Thank you for the many suggestions, critiques, and recommendations!
I will need some time to process them all.
To start with:
- The house is two stories, so without sloping roofs like the City Villa type typically offered by Streif Haus. (I was no longer able to make changes in the post due to the deadline)
- The floor plan and the positioning of the house on the plot can still be changed free of charge.
- We have only had one meeting with the architect. He quickly sketched three versions based on my plan. There is no first draft yet.
- All additional costs for the plot have already been considered and planned for, such as demolition of existing buildings/trees, excavation for the foundation slab, etc. This was not an issue for me here.
- The neighboring plot on the right has a slight slope, ours does not. I will double-check this, thanks.
- We have to build with Streif Haus, otherwise we would not have obtained the plot. At this point, there is not much against this except the architect situation.
- We will plan the entrance on the right, facing east. However, the entrance and the straight staircase run along the shorter side, which is about 8 meters (26 feet) wide. This needs to be checked to see how it looks in the floor plan.
- Regarding the building line on the northwest side: the building boundary including setback distances is already marked on the site plan, not the edge of the property.
- We like RomeoZwo’s comments about mirroring the floor plan. We will probably adopt that!
@ Zaba12:
"I don’t want to say anything about the floor plan! So much beautiful large space on the ground floor and yet so much nonsense. Oh dear!" – Please feel free to explain what you would change on the ground floor if you first think the large space is good? I am open to tips!
Thank you for the many suggestions, critiques, and recommendations!
I will need some time to process them all.
To start with:
- The house is two stories, so without sloping roofs like the City Villa type typically offered by Streif Haus. (I was no longer able to make changes in the post due to the deadline)
- The floor plan and the positioning of the house on the plot can still be changed free of charge.
- We have only had one meeting with the architect. He quickly sketched three versions based on my plan. There is no first draft yet.
- All additional costs for the plot have already been considered and planned for, such as demolition of existing buildings/trees, excavation for the foundation slab, etc. This was not an issue for me here.
- The neighboring plot on the right has a slight slope, ours does not. I will double-check this, thanks.
- We have to build with Streif Haus, otherwise we would not have obtained the plot. At this point, there is not much against this except the architect situation.
- We will plan the entrance on the right, facing east. However, the entrance and the straight staircase run along the shorter side, which is about 8 meters (26 feet) wide. This needs to be checked to see how it looks in the floor plan.
- Regarding the building line on the northwest side: the building boundary including setback distances is already marked on the site plan, not the edge of the property.
- We like RomeoZwo’s comments about mirroring the floor plan. We will probably adopt that!
@ Zaba12:
"I don’t want to say anything about the floor plan! So much beautiful large space on the ground floor and yet so much nonsense. Oh dear!" – Please feel free to explain what you would change on the ground floor if you first think the large space is good? I am open to tips!
kaho674 schrieb:
How flexible is the layout with Streif Haus? How much extra does it cost to have a design based on your own ideas?
Since everything is so tight here, a discussion only becomes interesting once you provide the exact plot dimensions. Then we can talk about the precise positioning of the house. From that, a sensible layout could be derived, and you can see what budget remains.We still have some flexibility with the layout and the house position. That doesn’t significantly increase the initial cost. However, if I enlarge the house, the jump in cost is not justifiable.
A small additional budget was planned? Well, the extra $15,000 is an estimate; we would still have some buffer.
But if increasing the house size quickly adds around $40,000 on top, plus other costs, that would go beyond the budget.
So far, only a preliminary building permit / planning permission has been approved. The official site survey and final measurements are still pending.
11ant schrieb:
The planning tool is not very helpful – neither the purely symbolic wall thicknesses nor the precise dimensions of less relevant features (such as distances between window centerlines) contribute meaningfully to the discussion. That’s clear to me. I just sketched out our ideas before going to the architect. It should be obvious that the wall thickness isn’t accurately shown and the windows aren’t perfectly positioned at this stage.
Who goes to the first meeting with the architect already having a finished architectural plan?
One open question is the topic of a garage and/or carport.
We need to fit two parking spaces on the plot. Your recommendations and sketches always include only one garage for a single car.
Where would be the ideal location for both parking spaces if we want to orient the house as far east as possible?
Both adjacent to each other on the east side? That would require positioning the house more boldly.
Or one garage on the far right and a paved parking space below/to the right near the street?
Is a double garage advisable?
We only have one car, and that is expected to remain the case for a long time.
We need to fit two parking spaces on the plot. Your recommendations and sketches always include only one garage for a single car.
Where would be the ideal location for both parking spaces if we want to orient the house as far east as possible?
Both adjacent to each other on the east side? That would require positioning the house more boldly.
Or one garage on the far right and a paved parking space below/to the right near the street?
Is a double garage advisable?
We only have one car, and that is expected to remain the case for a long time.
jay2jay schrieb:
Regarding the building line in the northwest: the site plan already shows the building boundary including the required setback distances, not the property line.The question was whether it is a building boundary or a building line: a building boundary must not be crossed by the house, while a building line is where the house must align to.jay2jay schrieb:
It should be clear that the wall thickness is not accurately shown and the windows are not perfectly positioned.For checking furniture placement, realistic dimensions still make sense—whether a wall is a few centimeters (inches) thicker or thinner doesn’t matter much—but an exterior wall built with interior wall thickness does. The window axis measurements are irrelevant and were just an example of dimensions that tend to confuse rather than inform, so it’s better to leave them out.jay2jay schrieb:
Is a double garage recommended?Absolutely not. It would dominate the plot destructively. Cars can be parked separately and don’t need a prominent “nest” — even for animal lovers, it’s reasonable to expect them to accept what’s left. Due to the shape of the property, the house must have top priority, and then everything else follows.https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
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