ᐅ L-shaped house on a trapezoidal plot of land

Created on: 21 Feb 2021 10:23
T
Tejasvini
[A friendly hello] to the forum community from the tri-border area A/CH/D!

After spending several days browsing here first as a guest and now as a registered user, and wishing some posts were available in book format – so much information, excitement & entertainment – I’ll briefly introduce myself and start my first thread (the first of probably many to come 😉)

The [short] facts about the topic (more detailed info will follow once the first floor plans are ready; I’ll answer the list of questions there since it seems more appropriate):


We have been talking for years about tearing down our parents’ house (about 200 years old, oil and wood stoves only in occupied rooms, not all rooms properly insulated, ceiling and room heights so low it’s frustrating… can you feel my enthusiasm? … but it does have a very nice location – except for the [lovely] relatives who built next door – see attachment) and building something new instead. Finally, *hurray*, we now have a timeline and a budget.
  • The land is in Austria/ Vorarlberg near Lake Constance (no lake view… that would be something), just over 700 sqm (7,535 sq ft) – a large protected area to the southwest – level ground
  • Originally planned about 120 sqm (1,292 sq ft) living space for two people (as mentioned, more details to come… otherwise I’ll probably annoy you a lot in this first post and have many questions later that will keep you busy for a while)
  • Ground floor + 1st floor – no basement – flat roof
  • We will live upstairs and sleep downstairs (that’s a fact; it will be hard to change our minds on that). If necessary, we’ll have a stairlift or a small elevator.

Attached are pictures of the land and our house – the one with the red roof on the *curvy corner* (I can upload photos of the garden and views from the property on request) and my first plans. Honestly, the initial plan was created with an online planner, fully furnished, with decorations, pictures and all my plants – and there are quite a few *gg* . It was quite a challenge remodeling everything every time a wall was changed.

But I’m somewhat teachable and have now gotten a ruler, pencil, and of course an eraser. I’m no longer drawing decorations, and I’ll get graph paper soon, I promise!

I hope you can follow the plan; only the exterior walls are drawn, marked in red on the ground floor and orange hatch for the upper floor. The plot dimensions and the 3 m (10 ft) setback distance are also indicated. South is at the bottom as usual … until now in my plans the bottom was always where I placed the entrance, but as I said, I’m learning…

Now that you’ve had a look here, I’m interested in what you would build differently and how the cost differences are roughly affected by walls with flush corners, more corners and edges, shifted upper floors, etc. The question is less about why the garage length varies or why wall lengths differ from plan to plan, but rather about the basic layout and location and to what extent extras impact costs financially.

I hope I included some informative data (which should be highlighted) and now I’ll let you critique me — I’m really looking forward to your opinions and suggestions so that our first house won’t be built for the enemy…. because building three times is out of the question.

PS: In case no one noticed, I really don’t have a clue about planning, so in plain English: a complete novice 🙂
W
WilderSueden
21 Feb 2021 12:12
The designs are all very closed off toward the street and very open toward the family. I can understand the first part well, but I’m not sure if I like the second.

Other points:
- The house will be quite narrow and elongated.
- At the moment, I find it hard to imagine living in it. Can you mark the proposed rooms?
- Why sleep downstairs and live upstairs? I just can’t wrap my head around that. If you already have a plot with a garden, why completely separate the living room and kitchen from it? How do you envision barbecuing on weekends with nice weather? A second kitchen on the ground floor? Carrying all the food and dirty dishes up and down the stairs? We don’t even need to talk about age yet — I already find the concept moderately impractical so far.
I
icandoit
21 Feb 2021 12:28
Garage facing the main street?

Are there no setback areas in front of the garage in A?
H
haydee
21 Feb 2021 13:53
I would have spontaneously positioned the L-shape so that the relatives are behind.
Y
ypg
21 Feb 2021 16:29
Where does your family live? South of you? I like that.
I would plan a similar layout but wouldn’t make the mistake of turning my back on the south side.
I don’t understand what you mean by "living upstairs." Don’t you want to enjoy the garden?
11ant21 Feb 2021 19:24
I consider planning a house with such a design requirement (L) to be a significant challenge for the already difficult planning process. I have doubts about the driveway from the district road (?) – why do you not want to use the local street (access road?) for traffic access in any of the options?

In a purely introductory thread, I would have expected more personal information, and to wait with the house positioning until after the questionnaire.

Furthermore, I would always also develop an option for "building composition using (partial) existing structure" – in my view, the two-hundred-year age of the house alone is not a sufficient reason to reject this.

It is still unclear to me whether the "reversal" of the classic floor layout is a current description or a desired specification. Since you mention that a lake view is unfortunately not available and the plot does not appear to have a significant slope, I do not understand this "reversal." Where exactly does the view from a sofa on the upper floor lead?
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
I
icandoit
21 Feb 2021 19:31
My first idea was also not to go with the L-shape. With 120 m² (1,292 sq ft) over two stories, it doesn’t make much sense. I have also planned the garage facing the access road. I’ll wait for answers from the OP. They are still enjoying the sun. 😉