ᐅ Is a bungalow with a basement practical for a single-family home that includes a 60 m² office?

Dear Building Forum,

I am at the very beginning of planning a single-family house. The following framework conditions apply:

• Land plot available, all roof styles and building types permitted
• Construction budget: 500,000 EUR including additional costs and kitchen
• Living area 115m2 (1240 sq ft)
• Office with 60m2 (645 sq ft) (single room)
• Double garage
• If possible, KFW 55 standard

Currently, I am trying to find out if a bungalow would work for the intended project. The idea is as follows:

• Since the plot is relatively large (712m2 (7665 sq ft)), a bungalow could be placed
• The bungalow would have a relatively small but sufficient living area
• The bungalow will have a full basement, which except for the "office" will be used as a utility cellar
• The office will be the only basement room equipped with heating

Very rough cost estimate so far (without soil survey):

• Bungalow: 115 * 2500 => 287,000 EUR
• Basement: 115 * 750 => 86,250 EUR
• Additional costs: => 74,650 EUR (20%)

Advantages of this idea are:

• All essentials for daily living on one level, especially good when getting older
• Office located cooler in summer than in an upper floor
• No sloping ceilings in the office
• Technical room can be placed in the basement
• Additional storage and utility space in the basement

Does this proposal make sense, or would a two-story single-family house of about 150m2 (1615 sq ft) be more suitable for the plot? The office would then be on the upper floor but would have to be smaller. The main advantage of this option would be the increased garden area.

I am aware that all of this is still very rough. My first goal is to find out which possible options exist.

Many thanks in advance for all tips and advice.

jjoschyy schrieb:

Office with 60m2 (single room)

Even as an open-plan office, the size does not suggest private asset management, but an official business location that requires emergency exits and other occupational safety measures, and so on, the usual formalities.

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The 60m2 (645.8 sq ft) area is intended not only to be used as an office but also as a workshop. 60m2 (645.8 sq ft) would be the ideal size.

jjoschyy schrieb:

The 60 m² (645 sq ft) space is intended not only as an "office" but also as a workshop. 60 m² (645 sq ft)

When you said office, I imagined you working from home in the "dark" basement. 60 square meters (645 sq ft)? Now you’re adding a workshop into the mix.

Who really needs one room with 60 square meters (645 sq ft) in the basement, and for what purpose?

jjoschyy schrieb:

• Bungalow: 115*2500 => 287,000 EUR
• Basement: 115*750 => 86,250
• Additional costs: => 74,650 (20%)

The basement costs seem significantly too low to me. 33% of the above-ground construction costs can’t be right, can it? Otherwise, everyone would build with a basement. In general, above-ground living space, like your office, is usually less expensive.

The description was unfortunately not ideal. An "office" of 60m2 (645 sq ft) would actually be a bit exaggerated 🙂

The idea was to do without a regular office space in the living area and instead set up a "office corner" in the workshop. That would be sufficient for my case. Primarily, it involves electronics work at the workbench with a soldering iron. Basically, I see two possible options for this:

Option 1 (large workshop)

• Bungalow with 115m2 (1237 sq ft) living area, no office
• Basement with combined workshop/office

Option 2 (small workshop)

• Two-story single-family house with 150m2 (1615 sq ft)
• Workshop on the upper floor, 30m2 (323 sq ft)
• No basement

Regarding costs, I only made a rough estimate based on common information from the internet. For basements, 500 EUR per m2 (about 46.5 USD per sq ft) was often mentioned. Therefore, I assumed 750 EUR per m2 (about 69.5 USD per sq ft) due to additional heating and insulation. However, this was probably too optimistic.

Overall, this raises the following questions for me:

• Is option 1 really much more expensive than option 2?
• Is there possibly a third option worth considering?
• For a heated and insulated basement room, should one also expect costs of around 2500 EUR per m2 (about 232 USD per sq ft)?

Thank you very much.