ᐅ Floor plan for a single-family home with two full stories and a recessed/stepped top floor
Created on: 15 Mar 2021 22:05
S
StephanM
Dear Homebuilding Forum,
As a newcomer to your group, here is the completed profile of our building project:
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 637sqm (6860 sq ft)
Slope: no, completely flat
Site coverage ratio: 0.4
Floor area ratio: 0.8
Building window, building line and boundary: street frontage 17.6m (58 ft), 3m (10 ft) setback on left and right sides, building window 11.6m (38 ft) wide x 12.5m (41 ft) deep
Adjacent buildings: single-family houses
Number of parking spaces: two possible
Number of floors: 2 full stories plus 1 setback floor with flat roof (minimum 1m (3 ft) recess on all four sides)
Roof type: gable roof & flat roof
Architectural style: many options allowed as long as aligned with design guidelines
Orientation: south-facing
Maximum height/limits: 9m (30 ft)
Other requirements
Homeowners’ Requirements
Style, roof form, building type: simple, timeless, flat roof, cube-shaped
Basement, floors: basement, ground floor, 1st floor, 2nd floor as setback level
Number of people, ages: 2 adults, 4 children between 1 and 6 years
Space requirements ground floor, upper floors: ground floor approx. 105-110sqm (1130-1180 sq ft), 1st floor approx. 100-105sqm (1080-1130 sq ft), 2nd floor approx. 40-45sqm (430-480 sq ft)
Office: family use or home office? 1 home office
Guest bedrooms per year: very rare
Open or closed architecture: open concept
Conservative or modern construction: conservative design
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open kitchen with island
Number of dining seats: at least 6, extendable to 8-9
Fireplace: maybe, but chimney routing is a bit complicated
Music/stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: balcony on 1st floor to soften the building volume, possibly a roof terrace on the 2nd floor if not too complicated
Garage, carport: originally planned garage on one side including storage and carport on the other side, now tend to only carport as garage affects overall appearance
Utility garden, greenhouse: kindergarten ;-)
Other wishes/special features/daily routine, also reasons for why this or that should or should not be included
House Design
Who designed it:
Do-it-Yourself
What do you like most and why?
That it was possible to arrange spacious children’s rooms and create space for two bathrooms. Public living areas on the ground floor, children’s floor on the 1st floor, and parents’ area on the 2nd floor.
What do you like least and why?
I’m uncertain about the positioning of the bathrooms relative to each other (complexity due to drainage pipes), and which staircase best serves the 1st floor layout. The building volume is still not ideal, but I have no further ideas on how to meet the zoning requirements.
Price estimate according to architect/planner: 640,000 EUR
Personal price limit for the house including fittings: approx. 700,000 EUR
Preferred heating system: geothermal
If you have to give up something, which details or extensions
- can you do without: additional room in the setback floor, terrace in the setback floor, already gave up on double garage as it overly restricted the floor plan :-( possibly external basement stairs
- cannot do without: 4 large children’s/teenage rooms, setback floor because we can’t fit all rooms on just 2 floors, basement as a lot of stuff accumulates with 4 children...
Why is the design like it is now? For example:
Because after many nights of planning I couldn’t come up with a better solution...
What makes it in your opinion particularly good or bad?
It meets our requirements on paper, but I lack the experience to judge whether it will work well in practice, which is why I’m asking for your opinions.
What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
How can I best organize the living space (especially but not only the 1st floor) and use the proper staircase design to create a spacious hallway without wasting area?
That was quite a bit of work ;-) I hope this information is useful for the further discussion.
In the next post I’ll share the floor plans and some exterior views (if I manage the attachments...)
Thank you in advance for your time reviewing this and for your honest and constructive feedback on the current design!
Best regards
Stephan
As a newcomer to your group, here is the completed profile of our building project:
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 637sqm (6860 sq ft)
Slope: no, completely flat
Site coverage ratio: 0.4
Floor area ratio: 0.8
Building window, building line and boundary: street frontage 17.6m (58 ft), 3m (10 ft) setback on left and right sides, building window 11.6m (38 ft) wide x 12.5m (41 ft) deep
Adjacent buildings: single-family houses
Number of parking spaces: two possible
Number of floors: 2 full stories plus 1 setback floor with flat roof (minimum 1m (3 ft) recess on all four sides)
Roof type: gable roof & flat roof
Architectural style: many options allowed as long as aligned with design guidelines
Orientation: south-facing
Maximum height/limits: 9m (30 ft)
Other requirements
Homeowners’ Requirements
Style, roof form, building type: simple, timeless, flat roof, cube-shaped
Basement, floors: basement, ground floor, 1st floor, 2nd floor as setback level
Number of people, ages: 2 adults, 4 children between 1 and 6 years
Space requirements ground floor, upper floors: ground floor approx. 105-110sqm (1130-1180 sq ft), 1st floor approx. 100-105sqm (1080-1130 sq ft), 2nd floor approx. 40-45sqm (430-480 sq ft)
Office: family use or home office? 1 home office
Guest bedrooms per year: very rare
Open or closed architecture: open concept
Conservative or modern construction: conservative design
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open kitchen with island
Number of dining seats: at least 6, extendable to 8-9
Fireplace: maybe, but chimney routing is a bit complicated
Music/stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: balcony on 1st floor to soften the building volume, possibly a roof terrace on the 2nd floor if not too complicated
Garage, carport: originally planned garage on one side including storage and carport on the other side, now tend to only carport as garage affects overall appearance
Utility garden, greenhouse: kindergarten ;-)
Other wishes/special features/daily routine, also reasons for why this or that should or should not be included
House Design
Who designed it:
Do-it-Yourself
What do you like most and why?
That it was possible to arrange spacious children’s rooms and create space for two bathrooms. Public living areas on the ground floor, children’s floor on the 1st floor, and parents’ area on the 2nd floor.
What do you like least and why?
I’m uncertain about the positioning of the bathrooms relative to each other (complexity due to drainage pipes), and which staircase best serves the 1st floor layout. The building volume is still not ideal, but I have no further ideas on how to meet the zoning requirements.
Price estimate according to architect/planner: 640,000 EUR
Personal price limit for the house including fittings: approx. 700,000 EUR
Preferred heating system: geothermal
If you have to give up something, which details or extensions
- can you do without: additional room in the setback floor, terrace in the setback floor, already gave up on double garage as it overly restricted the floor plan :-( possibly external basement stairs
- cannot do without: 4 large children’s/teenage rooms, setback floor because we can’t fit all rooms on just 2 floors, basement as a lot of stuff accumulates with 4 children...
Why is the design like it is now? For example:
Because after many nights of planning I couldn’t come up with a better solution...
What makes it in your opinion particularly good or bad?
It meets our requirements on paper, but I lack the experience to judge whether it will work well in practice, which is why I’m asking for your opinions.
What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
How can I best organize the living space (especially but not only the 1st floor) and use the proper staircase design to create a spacious hallway without wasting area?
That was quite a bit of work ;-) I hope this information is useful for the further discussion.
In the next post I’ll share the floor plans and some exterior views (if I manage the attachments...)
Thank you in advance for your time reviewing this and for your honest and constructive feedback on the current design!
Best regards
Stephan
I’m not sure how the general contractor/developer offers look for houses suitable for families with four children, but I would rather see you work with an architect. In that case, I would drop the current design and continue to define your daily routine, required storage space, room list, spatial effects, and so on, then start looking for an architect. Is the budget with or without the land?
StephanM schrieb:
I couldn’t quite follow the first part of your reply. What do you mean by 3 times "no"? StephanM schrieb:
Unfortunately, a double garage won’t fit in the available space. No, that’s not what I meant either.
StephanM schrieb:
What about a home office? I’m not allowed to place that right on the property boundary since it’s living space, right? No, that’s also not allowed.
I have a similar design at my place like your house… I’ll experiment with it later.
icandoit schrieb:
I have a building envelope measured as 11.9 m (39 feet) by 13.5 m (44 feet) based on the plan. Where did you get your figures from?
Why not plot #12? Easier to build on and probably cheaper.
What is located to the south?From the related DWG file, I get approximately 11.9 m (39 feet) by 12.5 m (41 feet), but the property boundaries are not perfectly perpendicular, so instead of the full 11.9 m (39 feet) we actually have around 11.6 m (38 feet) available. Regarding plot No. 12: true, the building envelope there is easier to develop and also more cost-effective. Why did we still choose No. 11? Several months ago, we just thought we preferred it before considering buildability in detail...
icandoit schrieb:
You don’t own the land yet. But have you already had plans drawn up by an architect?
Are the plans from the architect? What did you pay for them? No, we are not yet the owners of the land but have held a right of first refusal since 01/21. The transfer of ownership will only take place once the design has been "approved" by the project development company according to the "design guidelines" for this building area. Then a building permit / planning permission can be submitted and the land purchase notarized. The planning process with the architect did not work out very well; we apparently did not fit well together and therefore stopped it early. The plans I posted in the forum are 0% from the architect but are just my own amateur attempt...
Kokovi79 schrieb:
I don’t know what general contractor / design-build offers are available for houses suited to families with four children, but I would rather see you working with an architect. Therefore, in this case, I would “put the current design aside” and further define your requirements regarding daily routines, required storage space, room list, the intended atmosphere of the rooms, etc., and start looking for an architect. Is the budget including or excluding the land? Thank you for your opinion! You’re probably right about the flexibility of general contractors/design-builders when it comes to a family with four children. At least you won’t find that on catalog page 17... An architect is definitely still the way to go; we just need a different one. The budget refers to the house only.
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