ᐅ House and Floor Plan Design – Initial Architect’s Draft Available

Created on: 14 Oct 2020 18:29
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Pinkiponk
As previously announced, our old house in Baden-Württemberg has now been sold, we have moved to the Leipzig district, and we can now focus on our new house. Due to our age, we have deliberately downsized both the lot size and the living space. We have a first architect’s draft. I have already noted a few change requests and am now looking forward to your additions, criticism, and suggestions. If further plans or similar are needed, I will gladly provide them as long as I have them available.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to help me.

Development Plan / Restrictions
Lot size: 567sqm (6,105 sqft)
Slope: visually not noticeable; if this is important information, I will look for where to find it
Site occupancy index: 0.35
Floor area ratio: 0.8
Building envelope, building line, and boundary: see attached drawing
Edge development: not allowed/desired on our part
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 2
Roof type: hipped roof
Style: classic, conservative
Orientation: ?
Maximum heights/limits: “Top of raw floor slab of ground floor to ridge height of main roof max. 11.5 meters (38 feet)”; “Top of raw floor slab of ground floor to eave height of main roof max. 7.0 meters (23 feet)”
Further requirements

Client Requirements
Style, roof shape, building type: we are trying to approximate the house shown in the photo below; however, without the gable projection; classic/conservative, hipped roof, town house
Basement, floors: no basement, 2 floors
Number of occupants, age: 1 male, 64 years old – 1 female, 58 years old
Space requirements on ground floor and upper floor:
Ground floor → kitchen, shower bathroom, living/lounge room, utility room with kitchenette and floor drain, hallway;
Upper floor → bathroom with tub, bedroom, 2 “wardrobe and storage rooms”
Office: family use or home office? Couple without children, no home office
Number of overnight guests per year: 10
Open or closed architecture: open on the outside, closed on the inside
Conservative or modern construction: conservative
Open kitchen, cooking island: no, classical L-shaped kitchen or similar (the plan includes a cooking island that will not be built)
Number of dining seats: 2 in the kitchen, up to 6–8 in the living/lounge room
Fireplace: gas stove chimney
Music/stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: both no
Garage, carport: 2 arched carports
Vegetable garden, greenhouse: both no
Additional wishes/particulars/daily routine, also reasons why some things should or should not be

House Design
Who created the plan:
– Planner from a construction company: yes, in cooperation with the clients
– Architect: unclear
– Do-it-yourself: yes, in cooperation with the prefabricated house manufacturer’s planner
What do you especially like? Why? Many windows and patio doors, lots of natural light and fresh air
What do you not like? Why? The windows on the upper floor are too low in the plan, but this will be changed
Price estimate according to architect/planner: already commissioned offer/order €312,780.00 (without carport, outdoor facilities, additional construction costs, land, ...)
Personal price limit for the house including equipment: €400,000.00
Preferred heating system: gas condensing boiler plus solar thermal (according to legal requirements)

If you have to forgo something, which details/upgrades
– What you can give up: we are already giving up shutters, whirlpool
– What you cannot give up: many windows and patio doors, muntins in the windows and doors

Why is the design as it is? For example:
A mixture of many examples from various magazines…
What do you think makes it good or bad? It generally meets our wishes. On the ground floor, we want access to the garden from every room. We find symmetry more pleasing than asymmetry. Few different window and door formats. No horizontal (“lying”) windows. Each of us has a separate room for clothing and such, so that no wardrobes have to be placed in the bedroom. We do not want a separate dressing room.

What is the most important/fundamental question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
The roof seems somewhat steep to me. Is a 30-degree roof pitch for a house with a base of 9.40m x 9.40m (31 feet x 31 feet) too steep? The standard according to the provider is 22 degrees. That seemed too flat, or you can hardly see the roof.

The development plan was too large to upload; I will try again in a separate post in this thread.

Garden outlined in red in the center, forest/field on the left, street on the right, building north/south.


Two-story, light beige house with white windows and entrance, surrounded by a garden.


Floor plan of a house with terrace, garden, and carport on the lot.

Floor plan of a residence with interior layout, dimension lines, and property boundaries.

Section AA-AA of a small house with gable roof: interior rooms, stairs, windows, outdoor area.

Architectural drawing: two two-story houses with gable roofs; left with solar thermal, southwest orientation.

Architectural plan: two houses with gable roofs, north and east views, streetscape, car and people.
Y
Ysop***
15 Oct 2020 18:52
May I ask what is important to you? You write that, "by and large," your wishes are being met. The kitchen and bathroom are not that important. I get the impression that the other forum members are making more effort to optimize than you are, and that you are quite content. So: what do you expect from us? By the way, I can only agree with the others on the topics that have already been mentioned.
11ant15 Oct 2020 18:56
Pinkiponk schrieb:

At the moment, we are temporarily living in a 78 m² (840 sq ft) rental apartment, and I feel completely comfortable.

Already at the new location, I assume?
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
E
Escroda
15 Oct 2020 18:57
Pinkiponk schrieb:

since the architect/planner followed the requirements of the development plan.
Unfortunately, the details of the development plan are missing, but in the ground floor layout, the dashed lines seem to represent the building boundaries, which appear to be significantly exceeded at the rear without justification. It should also be clarified whether the local authority allows two access points. Usually, this is a special use that requires approval by the road authority responsible for public roads and is often denied without valid reasons.
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Pinkiponk
15 Oct 2020 19:02
Ysop*** schrieb:

May I ask what is important to you? You write that, “by and large,” your wishes are being met. The kitchen and bathroom aren’t that important. I get the impression that the other forum members put more effort into optimization attempts than you do, and that you are quite easygoing about it. So: what do you expect from us? By the way, I can only agree with the others regarding the topics that have already been discussed.

What do I want? Information about what other people—who are not me—would do differently, so that I can then compare that with my own needs. I think this works very well, and I thank every single forum member for that. I hope my preferences—for example, that garages look nice when designed more like Victorian conservatories—are not completely rejected by everyone here. Surely there must be a reason why most garages don’t look like Victorian conservatories. I learn something new every day on this forum, and I am grateful for that.
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Pinkiponk
15 Oct 2020 19:04
Escroda schrieb:

Unfortunately, the details regarding the zoning plan are missing, but in the ground floor layout it seems that the dashed lines indicate the building boundaries, which are evidently being significantly exceeded at the rear without justification. It should also be clarified whether the municipality allows two access points. Usually, this represents a special use not covered by public service and requires approval from the road authority, which is typically denied without valid reasons.
The planner/architect has noticed that almost all neighbors have exceeded the building boundaries and is now trying to achieve the same for us.

I don’t understand the issue with the two access points but assume the municipality has valid reasons. If it’s not possible, I will look for an alternative solution. Only one parking space is required.
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Pinkiponk
15 Oct 2020 19:13
11ant schrieb:

Already at the new location, I assume?
Not quite, we didn’t find an apartment there. But nearby.