Hello everyone,
We have a plot of land (see site plan) and have started planning our dream house without an architect. Before we move forward in more detail, it would be great to receive opinions, ideas, and perspectives.
On the floor plan, you can see an electrical transformer to the east. It is quite tall and does not provide a pleasant view. Therefore, the utility room is planned here, separated from the house with access to the "breakfast terrace."
We are planning with the future in mind. This means we want all the essential living spaces on one level. Upstairs is for the children and grandchildren when they visit, as well as hobby rooms, an office, etc. The area above the living room is open. Downstairs, it is important for us to have separate areas. The kitchen/dining and living rooms should not be an open, connected space. We often have guests while others want to watch a movie in peace.
We welcome any extraordinary ideas. The house should be unique. But we also appreciate advice on realistic feasibility.
The house will be built as a timber frame house.
The building plan allows for few restrictions. The building envelope is shown on the drawing.
Thank you and best regards,
Andreas
We have a plot of land (see site plan) and have started planning our dream house without an architect. Before we move forward in more detail, it would be great to receive opinions, ideas, and perspectives.
On the floor plan, you can see an electrical transformer to the east. It is quite tall and does not provide a pleasant view. Therefore, the utility room is planned here, separated from the house with access to the "breakfast terrace."
We are planning with the future in mind. This means we want all the essential living spaces on one level. Upstairs is for the children and grandchildren when they visit, as well as hobby rooms, an office, etc. The area above the living room is open. Downstairs, it is important for us to have separate areas. The kitchen/dining and living rooms should not be an open, connected space. We often have guests while others want to watch a movie in peace.
We welcome any extraordinary ideas. The house should be unique. But we also appreciate advice on realistic feasibility.
The house will be built as a timber frame house.
The building plan allows for few restrictions. The building envelope is shown on the drawing.
Thank you and best regards,
Andreas
I
Ideensucher22 Jul 2020 09:27neo-sciliar schrieb:
We are currently reconsidering the concept of having the bedroom downstairs and the living room upstairs. It’s not that spectacular, my parents built the same way in 1995 because they had three children’s bedrooms upstairs. Still, there was a kitchen with a dining table downstairs and the living room had seating for eight in front of the TV plus another extendable dining table for guests. In addition, there was a bathroom with a tub and the utility room.
Didn’t someone here also place the bedroom on the ground floor and the utility room upstairs in exchange?
neo-sciliar schrieb:
And in "my" version, the criticism is that you have to go upstairs to watch TV and then back down again. In the first post of the thread you write, “We’re planning for old age.”
So, does that mean when you are old you won’t be able to watch TV anymore?
neo-sciliar schrieb:
My basic principle in life: never accept something just because everyone else does. I question everything. It doesn’t have to be right just because it’s always been done that way (if it always were, we’d all still be riding horses across the prairie today…) That’s basically a good approach, but in most cases, none of us are quite as clever as Galileo to come up with a world-changing discovery.
There are reasons why certain things have become standard, for example, that the bathroom shouldn’t be a walk-through room.
I’m not sure what the plot actually looks like, but I would probably try to fully utilize the 13m (43 feet) depth of the building envelope and make the house narrower. So instead of your current 13x10m (43x33 feet), it would be 10x13m (33x43 feet). This way, you could use the garden and the entire west side for natural light and at the same time, with a terrace on the west side, have more privacy instead of having the terrace right next to the entrance and the street.
Are you set on having a straight staircase?
Regarding the walk-in closet: a door in the walk-in closet with wardrobes on both sides shouldn’t take up extra space since you need room between the wardrobes anyway, and most likely there won’t be anything on the wall. Corner solutions often don’t provide *that much* more space as you might hope.
Is there any reason against designing the TV room upstairs as an open foyer or lounge area? It is already sufficiently separated from the ground floor by the door and stairs, and you could use the entire room including the hallway. This means more living space and less unused circulation area.
Are you set on having a straight staircase?
Regarding the walk-in closet: a door in the walk-in closet with wardrobes on both sides shouldn’t take up extra space since you need room between the wardrobes anyway, and most likely there won’t be anything on the wall. Corner solutions often don’t provide *that much* more space as you might hope.
Is there any reason against designing the TV room upstairs as an open foyer or lounge area? It is already sufficiently separated from the ground floor by the door and stairs, and you could use the entire room including the hallway. This means more living space and less unused circulation area.
neo-sciliar schrieb:
The living room downstairs (we call it the seating area) is really just meant for sitting down to watch the news or something similar. That’s why it’s so small.A room for watching the news can of course be small – but in my opinion, "small" doesn’t go well with having an open space above. I’m grateful that I don’t have to understand everything.https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
N
neo-sciliar22 Jul 2020 11:34Hi, I have redrawn the plan myself and moved the bedroom upstairs, which feels more traditional. I’m bothered by the long hallways in the center of the house.
Now I’m looking forward to your comments. I haven’t planned the windows yet, so please don’t pay attention to those for now.
Now I’m looking forward to your comments. I haven’t planned the windows yet, so please don’t pay attention to those for now.
I thought you were planning a house for 2 people. I can't find the questionnaire.
Does it have to be 2 full floors? You need more space on the ground floor than upstairs.
If you can’t or don’t want to use the stairs anymore, are you willing to accept some limitations?
I would plan something along these lines:
Schwörerhaus Bungalow Plan E 15-263.2
Does it have to be 2 full floors? You need more space on the ground floor than upstairs.
If you can’t or don’t want to use the stairs anymore, are you willing to accept some limitations?
I would plan something along these lines:
Schwörerhaus Bungalow Plan E 15-263.2
I haven’t read all 26 pages, so here’s a quick question:
Am I right in understanding that you want to fit your children into 12m² (130 sq ft) rooms, while there is 17m² (183 sq ft) of unused space nearby?
If yes: My suggestion would be to eliminate that free space, widen the hallway a bit (right now you only have a 1m (3.3 ft) passage width?), and increase the children’s rooms by about 5m² (54 sq ft) each. Try placing a wardrobe, a bed, and a desk in a 12m² (130 sq ft) room and see how little space is left. If financial or local constraints don’t allow any other options, then that’s understandable, but if possible, it’s important to give your kids some space to live in. After all, you have 18m² (194 sq ft) just for sleeping, and the kids only 12m² (130 sq ft) for “living.”
If no: Please disregard what I said, except I would still make the hallway wider.
The bedroom with the corridor/closet next to the door feels awkward to me. Have you considered using an "L"-shaped staircase? That might allow you to design the bedroom with a rectangular shape and gain more space on that entire floor side (possibly for a storage room or similar).
Am I right in understanding that you want to fit your children into 12m² (130 sq ft) rooms, while there is 17m² (183 sq ft) of unused space nearby?
If yes: My suggestion would be to eliminate that free space, widen the hallway a bit (right now you only have a 1m (3.3 ft) passage width?), and increase the children’s rooms by about 5m² (54 sq ft) each. Try placing a wardrobe, a bed, and a desk in a 12m² (130 sq ft) room and see how little space is left. If financial or local constraints don’t allow any other options, then that’s understandable, but if possible, it’s important to give your kids some space to live in. After all, you have 18m² (194 sq ft) just for sleeping, and the kids only 12m² (130 sq ft) for “living.”
If no: Please disregard what I said, except I would still make the hallway wider.
The bedroom with the corridor/closet next to the door feels awkward to me. Have you considered using an "L"-shaped staircase? That might allow you to design the bedroom with a rectangular shape and gain more space on that entire floor side (possibly for a storage room or similar).
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