ᐅ Floor Plan Optimization for Single-Family Home, 5 Occupants, 8.5m x 17m, 250 sqm
Created on: 18 May 2020 14:12
C
chrisse
Hello everyone,
I have been following this forum for a few weeks now and have picked up some ideas, and with your help, I believe I have already improved a few things.
So I think it’s time to share the floor plan we have developed so far for discussion. On the one hand, you tend to become somewhat “blind” to your own design over time, and on the other hand, I’ve seen many members here have a lot of experience.
Please excuse the not-so-optimal appearance of the plans. I overlaid the furniture on the floor plans using tracing paper. I didn’t find a suitable software solution that would allow me to import the architect’s plans. I eventually gave up and did it by hand.
I look forward to your suggestions, including criticism and ideas. We are still in a phase where many adjustments and optimizations are possible.
Thanks in advance to everyone.
Chrisse
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: >1,000 sqm (10,764 sq ft)
Slope: no
Floor area ratio (FAR): 0.3
Gross floor area ratio (GFA):
Building envelope / building line and boundary: The building envelope depth from north to south has already been fully utilized in the design.
Edge development
Number of parking spaces: 4
Number of storeys: 2
Roof shape: permitted are tent roof, gable roof, and hipped roof
Architectural style:
Orientation: All plans are precisely aligned to north. The entrance is therefore on the north side.
Maximum heights / limits: maximum wall height: 5.60 m (measured from the bottom edge of the rafters)
Other requirements
Client Requirements
Architectural style, roof type, building type: gable roof
Basement, floors: 2 full storeys plus basement
Number of occupants, ages: 5 persons (38, 37, 4, 2, 0)
Space requirements on ground floor (GF) and upper floor (UF):
On the GF: office for occasional home office use, guest toilet with shower, pantry, utility/laundry room (also serves as a buffer between garage and kitchen), kitchen with dining area, living room
On the UF: 3 fairly equal-sized children’s bedrooms. Separate children’s bathroom. Parents’ area accessed through a walk-in closet, which also serves as a hallway to parents’ bathroom and bedroom to minimize disturbance if someone is already sleeping.
In the basement: utility/technical room, root cellar, guest room with toilet, storage room, hobby room, workshop
Office: used for home office and meetings (volunteering, clubs, etc.)
Guests per year expected to stay overnight: 5
Open or closed architecture: kitchen and dining area are open, with the living room adjacent but somewhat separable
Conservative or modern construction style: modern country house style
Open kitchen, kitchen island: yes, open plan with space for casual breakfast at the kitchen island
Number of dining seats: daily 5, expandable to 10
Fireplace: would be nice as a room divider to the living area
Music / stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: balcony on west side on upper floor in front of children’s rooms
Garage, carport: double garage, 8.50 m (28 feet) long to accommodate bicycles etc.
Utility garden, greenhouse: no
House Design
Designer:
Friend architect (with a lot of our input)
What do you like most?
Few living rooms facing north/street/neighbor, which provides good screening; south side quite open as there are no neighbors; nice view of the forest to the east.
What do you dislike?
Kitchen and dining area up to the fireplace feel a bit narrow compared to the length. This is partly due to the limited width of the building envelope combined with the desired double garage and the fact that the property consists of two plots. The eastern plot is restricted to a maximum floor area of 110 sqm (1,184 sq ft). Thus, even with a narrower garage, we can’t build much wider. This is not a big problem but requires some consideration about the sensible layout of kitchen/dining/living areas.
The living room is intentionally relatively small since we only want private seating and a TV here for a cozy atmosphere. On the other side of the fireplace, we plan a small seating area for guests.
Price estimate according to architect/planner: 650,000
Personal price limit for the house, including equipment: -
Preferred heating system: traditional (gas boiler with photovoltaic), underfloor heating
If you had to give up certain features or expansions
- What can you live without:
A few square meters (sqm) in the western children’s rooms and in the parents’ bathroom
- What can you not live without:
Generous utility room with “mud shower” (for children’s clothes, shoes, etc.)
Spacious entrance area (nothing worse than guests bumping into each other while taking off coats)
Why is the design as it is? For example:
We created a kind of checklist for the rooms we need and their approximate sizes. Also included were wishes such as a guest WC with shower, utility room between garage and kitchen, walk-in closet in the parents’ area, etc.
Which wishes were implemented by the architect?
In principle, almost all requirements were implemented as requested, or we optimized them extensively with the architect until we reached this result.
We also visited numerous model home parks and looked at many floor plans in books and online for inspiration.
What do you think makes it particularly good or bad?
GOOD: The orientation is optimal in our opinion. Few living rooms facing north, very open to the south (which poses no problem as there are no direct neighbors). Morning sun in the bedroom to the east; west-facing children’s rooms with a nice view over the town/building area.
BAD: Kitchen/dining/living area is somewhat narrow relative to its length. Therefore, furniture arrangement and use are not yet ideal.
Integration of the stove as a room divider between dining area and living room is not quite right for us yet. We want a small seating group between dining area and living room that we can use together with guests.
What is the most important / fundamental question about the floor plan, summarized in 130 characters?
- Do you see weaknesses that we might have missed or that you find suboptimal (e.g., too narrow, too wide, too big or too small)?
- Do you have ideas regarding the sensible layout/use of the kitchen and dining area?
- Otherwise, we welcome all comments, tips, and ideas and are very grateful.
I have been following this forum for a few weeks now and have picked up some ideas, and with your help, I believe I have already improved a few things.
So I think it’s time to share the floor plan we have developed so far for discussion. On the one hand, you tend to become somewhat “blind” to your own design over time, and on the other hand, I’ve seen many members here have a lot of experience.
Please excuse the not-so-optimal appearance of the plans. I overlaid the furniture on the floor plans using tracing paper. I didn’t find a suitable software solution that would allow me to import the architect’s plans. I eventually gave up and did it by hand.
I look forward to your suggestions, including criticism and ideas. We are still in a phase where many adjustments and optimizations are possible.
Thanks in advance to everyone.
Chrisse
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: >1,000 sqm (10,764 sq ft)
Slope: no
Floor area ratio (FAR): 0.3
Gross floor area ratio (GFA):
Building envelope / building line and boundary: The building envelope depth from north to south has already been fully utilized in the design.
Edge development
Number of parking spaces: 4
Number of storeys: 2
Roof shape: permitted are tent roof, gable roof, and hipped roof
Architectural style:
Orientation: All plans are precisely aligned to north. The entrance is therefore on the north side.
Maximum heights / limits: maximum wall height: 5.60 m (measured from the bottom edge of the rafters)
Other requirements
Client Requirements
Architectural style, roof type, building type: gable roof
Basement, floors: 2 full storeys plus basement
Number of occupants, ages: 5 persons (38, 37, 4, 2, 0)
Space requirements on ground floor (GF) and upper floor (UF):
On the GF: office for occasional home office use, guest toilet with shower, pantry, utility/laundry room (also serves as a buffer between garage and kitchen), kitchen with dining area, living room
On the UF: 3 fairly equal-sized children’s bedrooms. Separate children’s bathroom. Parents’ area accessed through a walk-in closet, which also serves as a hallway to parents’ bathroom and bedroom to minimize disturbance if someone is already sleeping.
In the basement: utility/technical room, root cellar, guest room with toilet, storage room, hobby room, workshop
Office: used for home office and meetings (volunteering, clubs, etc.)
Guests per year expected to stay overnight: 5
Open or closed architecture: kitchen and dining area are open, with the living room adjacent but somewhat separable
Conservative or modern construction style: modern country house style
Open kitchen, kitchen island: yes, open plan with space for casual breakfast at the kitchen island
Number of dining seats: daily 5, expandable to 10
Fireplace: would be nice as a room divider to the living area
Music / stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: balcony on west side on upper floor in front of children’s rooms
Garage, carport: double garage, 8.50 m (28 feet) long to accommodate bicycles etc.
Utility garden, greenhouse: no
House Design
Designer:
Friend architect (with a lot of our input)
What do you like most?
Few living rooms facing north/street/neighbor, which provides good screening; south side quite open as there are no neighbors; nice view of the forest to the east.
What do you dislike?
Kitchen and dining area up to the fireplace feel a bit narrow compared to the length. This is partly due to the limited width of the building envelope combined with the desired double garage and the fact that the property consists of two plots. The eastern plot is restricted to a maximum floor area of 110 sqm (1,184 sq ft). Thus, even with a narrower garage, we can’t build much wider. This is not a big problem but requires some consideration about the sensible layout of kitchen/dining/living areas.
The living room is intentionally relatively small since we only want private seating and a TV here for a cozy atmosphere. On the other side of the fireplace, we plan a small seating area for guests.
Price estimate according to architect/planner: 650,000
Personal price limit for the house, including equipment: -
Preferred heating system: traditional (gas boiler with photovoltaic), underfloor heating
If you had to give up certain features or expansions
- What can you live without:
A few square meters (sqm) in the western children’s rooms and in the parents’ bathroom
- What can you not live without:
Generous utility room with “mud shower” (for children’s clothes, shoes, etc.)
Spacious entrance area (nothing worse than guests bumping into each other while taking off coats)
Why is the design as it is? For example:
We created a kind of checklist for the rooms we need and their approximate sizes. Also included were wishes such as a guest WC with shower, utility room between garage and kitchen, walk-in closet in the parents’ area, etc.
Which wishes were implemented by the architect?
In principle, almost all requirements were implemented as requested, or we optimized them extensively with the architect until we reached this result.
We also visited numerous model home parks and looked at many floor plans in books and online for inspiration.
What do you think makes it particularly good or bad?
GOOD: The orientation is optimal in our opinion. Few living rooms facing north, very open to the south (which poses no problem as there are no direct neighbors). Morning sun in the bedroom to the east; west-facing children’s rooms with a nice view over the town/building area.
BAD: Kitchen/dining/living area is somewhat narrow relative to its length. Therefore, furniture arrangement and use are not yet ideal.
Integration of the stove as a room divider between dining area and living room is not quite right for us yet. We want a small seating group between dining area and living room that we can use together with guests.
What is the most important / fundamental question about the floor plan, summarized in 130 characters?
- Do you see weaknesses that we might have missed or that you find suboptimal (e.g., too narrow, too wide, too big or too small)?
- Do you have ideas regarding the sensible layout/use of the kitchen and dining area?
- Otherwise, we welcome all comments, tips, and ideas and are very grateful.
A
Alessandro19 May 2020 12:58And what about all the stair railings?
The metal gates won’t help much if a child is clever and old enough...
You can definitely go overboard with safety sometimes.
The metal gates won’t help much if a child is clever and old enough...
You can definitely go overboard with safety sometimes.
Escroda schrieb:
The connection between the garage and the house limits many options.That is practically my main mantra.https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
I wasn’t able to reply during the day today, so here are a few sentences just before going to sleep.
First of all, thank you for some very helpful tips that are useful and also make us think.
1. Regarding the two plots, unfortunately, for the western plot we only have access to exactly half of the land and cannot purchase the whole lot. This significantly limits the possibility of moving the house. I hadn’t explained this in detail beforehand.
2. I also think the suggestion of a 3D design is very sensible. I believe it allows for a much better assessment of certain aspects.
3. The location of the staircase causes us some difficulties; however, we have discarded all other staircase options for different reasons. The option suggested by @Tamstar might still be worth considering.
4. The many seating areas in the kitchen and dining space are definitely not quite right yet. Basically, we will also need to reduce these to a reasonable size.
5. We are not very concerned about the risk of falling from the gallery. Noise could be more of an issue.
6. The garage, as currently positioned with that width, does limit us in some ways. Possibly, locating it on the west side could actually be an option. Alternatively, a narrower garage in the current planned location combined with a single garage on the west might provide more flexibility in the design.
Quite a few points. At the moment, I don’t have a clear overview of how and which of these we will be able to implement or use. But in any case, many thanks to everyone who has taken the time to reply so far.
Good night.
First of all, thank you for some very helpful tips that are useful and also make us think.
1. Regarding the two plots, unfortunately, for the western plot we only have access to exactly half of the land and cannot purchase the whole lot. This significantly limits the possibility of moving the house. I hadn’t explained this in detail beforehand.
2. I also think the suggestion of a 3D design is very sensible. I believe it allows for a much better assessment of certain aspects.
3. The location of the staircase causes us some difficulties; however, we have discarded all other staircase options for different reasons. The option suggested by @Tamstar might still be worth considering.
4. The many seating areas in the kitchen and dining space are definitely not quite right yet. Basically, we will also need to reduce these to a reasonable size.
5. We are not very concerned about the risk of falling from the gallery. Noise could be more of an issue.
6. The garage, as currently positioned with that width, does limit us in some ways. Possibly, locating it on the west side could actually be an option. Alternatively, a narrower garage in the current planned location combined with a single garage on the west might provide more flexibility in the design.
Quite a few points. At the moment, I don’t have a clear overview of how and which of these we will be able to implement or use. But in any case, many thanks to everyone who has taken the time to reply so far.
Good night.
chrisse schrieb:
I hadn’t described that to you in detail beforehand. Too bad. So it’s only 1200m² (12,917 sq ft) left.
chrisse schrieb:
Maybe positioning the building in the west could actually be an option. Yes, here with a mirrored floor plan:
I left a gap between the garage and the house so that @11ant can park the Q7 and X6 in the garage, which has been widened by 1 meter (3.3 ft). Otherwise, the house shifts 1 meter (3.3 ft) further west. To meet the maximum floor area ratio of 110m² (1,184 sq ft), the planner will still need to make some adjustments, but your initial placement wouldn’t have complied either. However, with this layout, the building boundaries aren’t exceeded; there’s even about 90cm (35 inches) clearance remaining. The flat roofs of the cross gable and bay window still require an exemption.
Development plan Part A, 2.1.2.
Roof structures, roof recesses, and cross gables are permitted with a minimum roof pitch of 15° (15°).
A balcony is completely overrated and, as a connecting element between two children’s rooms, it carries a high potential for conflict and unfairness toward the third child. Additionally, it costs money and counts towards the floor area. Is there any reason to include one?
We fully glazed the air space on the upper floor, which eliminated all noise and cooking odor issues without compromising the appearance. Of course, with the size of your gallery, this isn’t exactly cheap.
I would also paint the balcony and give child 3 a wider window. Then everything would be fair. If you don’t have neighbors to the east but instead a nice view of the forest, I would suggest a larger window with a relatively low sill height in the bathroom, placing the bathtub in front of it. That way, you could enjoy a nice view while bathing, which is currently blocked by the toilet.
I would also add a window to the dressing room.
I would also paint the balcony and give child 3 a wider window. Then everything would be fair. If you don’t have neighbors to the east but instead a nice view of the forest, I would suggest a larger window with a relatively low sill height in the bathroom, placing the bathtub in front of it. That way, you could enjoy a nice view while bathing, which is currently blocked by the toilet.
I would also add a window to the dressing room.
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