ᐅ New construction of a single-family house, approximately 220 sqm. Please provide feedback on the floor plan.

Hello everyone,

After quietly following this forum for a long time, I have now registered and would like to hear your opinions on our current planning status. The plan is to live in the house for about 15–20 years and then sell it.
So, here we go!

Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 620 m² (6676 sq ft)
Site coverage ratio: 0.4
Floor area ratio: 0.8
Building envelope, building line and boundary: 12 m x 14 m (39 ft 4 in x 46 ft)
Number of parking spaces: 1 plus 1 garage
Number of stories: 2
Roof type: pitched roof
Orientation: north
Additional requirements: drainage ditch in front of the building envelope on the south side, 3 m wide (10 ft), with a planned 4 m wide (13 ft) crossing

Client Requirements
Style, roof type, building type: urban villa
Basement, floors: no basement, 2 full stories
Number of occupants, age: 4 persons – 40, 41, 14, 14 years old
Guest bedrooms per year: none
Conservative or modern construction: modern
Open kitchen, kitchen island: kitchen island, semi-open with sliding door to dining area
Number of dining seats: 8
Fireplace: yes, as a room divider between living and dining
Music/sound system wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: yes
Garage, carport: yes
Utility garden, greenhouse: no
Additional wishes / special features / daily routine, also reasons why this or that should or should not be included

House Design
Planner: do-it-yourself

What do you particularly like? Why?
Large living area and master bedroom with walk-in closet and bathroom
Large kitchen

What do you dislike? Why?

Cost estimate according to architect/planner:
No cost estimate yet, as no contact has been made so far

Personal budget for the house, including fittings:
No idea yet

Preferred heating technology:
No preference, but if the combination with subsidies and so on is right, a geothermal heat pump would be welcome again. Otherwise, price-performance ratio should be good.

Hi,

quick questions:

- Why do you have two living room areas?
- Why does the staircase run through the TV area?
- The T-layout in the kids’ bathroom doesn’t work. The bathroom is only 2.2m (7 feet 3 inches) wide—or did I misread that?

I find it somewhat disappointing that the children's rooms are less than 15sqm (160 sq ft) despite the ample floor space. At the same time, the hallway and the gallery are significantly larger, which indicates an unbalanced distribution of space.

The entire living-dining-kitchen area is almost 80sqm (860 sq ft), but nowhere feels truly spacious.

The study will be difficult to furnish. Where are the filing cabinets supposed to go? Where will the desk be placed?

What is the purpose of imaginary measurements of the walls or even the breaks along the garage wall? But more importantly: why not build a proper house to live in, instead of giving the rooms the layout and dimensions dictated by the façade? Who is going to live there and pay off the mortgage: the façade or you? Relying solely on the neighbors’ envy of a perfectly styled designer shed to feel happy doesn’t last long :-(

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https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/

The kitchen might be too narrow for a seating island:
338cm (133 inches) – 60cm (24 inches) for the countertop run – 100cm (39 inches) aisle width – 100cm (39 inches) distance from the island to the wall = only 78cm (31 inches) left for the island, and this is based on rough construction measurements.

Hello everyone and thank you for the responses so far,

face26 schrieb:

- why do you have two living room areas?

In one area, we want to sit together with our guests; the other area is intended for watching TV and reading.

face26 schrieb:

- why does the staircase run through the TV area?

The idea is a cantilever staircase to keep the whole space open.

face26 schrieb:

- the T-layout in the kids’ bathroom doesn’t work. The bathroom is 2.2m (or did I misread?) too narrow.

Why do you think it doesn’t work? Isn’t approximately 80 cm (31 inches) between the sink and the T-wall enough?

opalau schrieb:

I find it a bit disappointing that with so much space, the children’s rooms are less than 15 sqm.

The children’s rooms are primarily intended as sleeping areas rather than play or hangout rooms. Since the children are already 14 years old and the current children’s rooms are around 15 sqm (160 sq ft), we thought this would be sufficient. We also considered dividing the mezzanine into children’s rooms, but then the upstairs hallway would be dark and without a window.

opalau schrieb:

The entire open-plan living-dining-kitchen area is almost 80 sqm, but it doesn’t feel spacious anywhere.

What exactly do you mean by that? What would you consider spacious, and how do you think it could be improved?

opalau schrieb:

The study will be difficult to furnish. Where would the (filing) cabinets go? Where is the desk placed?

The study is actually not intended for regular work. It will have a small desk and a cabinet on one wall for the essential documents only. We don’t plan to keep invoices from 20 years ago.

11ant schrieb:

What is the point of the imaginary wall dimensions or the break in the garage wall? But most importantly: why don’t you build a nice house to live in instead of assigning the rooms the layout and dimensions dictated by the facade?

First, I want to say that I drew this plan myself. I am not an architect or a draftsman. The break in the garage wall will not be executed as shown; I only included it so that a 3D model could be generated.
I haven’t found any imaginary dimensions. The largest dimensions are 11 x 13 m (36 x 43 feet).
Where exactly do you see imaginary dimensions?
This will be our third project, in which we want to implement all of our wishes. Of course, we want the house to look good from the outside, but not to arouse envy. We don’t care about false friendships and don’t need to use any status symbols.

What do you consider a nice house, and why do you think this floor plan is not suitable for comfortable living?
What is disturbing? What could be improved?

Pinky0301 schrieb:

The kitchen might be too narrow for a seating island:
338 cm (133 inches) – 60 cm (24 inches) cabinet run – 100 cm (39 inches) between runs – 100 cm (39 inches) island to wall clearance = only 78 cm (31 inches) left for the island, and that’s raw structural measurement.

The calculation is almost correct. The starting measurement is actually 338 cm (133 inches) plus 60 cm (24 inches). So, 138 cm (54 inches) remain for the island.
The kitchen layout is not fixed, and we are open to suggestions on how to arrange it.