Hello,
we have already had several discussions with construction companies and have now arrived at a floor plan we are quite satisfied with. However, we are finding it difficult to choose the right builder and are not entirely sure if the floor plan is truly optimal. Also, we have not yet decided whether to build a prefabricated house or a solid (conventional) house.
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 765 sqm (8,236 sq ft)
Slope: no
Site coverage ratio: 0.4
Floor area ratio: 0.5
Building envelope, building line and boundary: 9.5 x 20 m (31 x 66 ft). The plot is 15.5 m (51 ft) wide and a setback of half the eave height (at least 3 m (10 ft)) must be maintained.
Boundary construction: possible for the garage
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 2 full stories (or a high knee wall > 2 m (6.5 ft) to keep the eave height under 6 m (20 ft))
Roof type: no specification known
Architectural style: no specification known
Orientation: see site plan
Maximum heights / limits: eave height max. 6 m (20 ft) or accordingly higher setback distance
Other requirements: none
Builders’ Requirements
Architectural style: modern
Roof shape: gable or hip roof
Building type: urban villa
Basement: no
Number of floors: 2 full stories (or a high knee wall > 2 m (6.5 ft) to keep the eave height under 6 m (20 ft))
Number of occupants, age: two people (28), potentially two children in the future
Space requirement for ground floor and upper floor: approx. 180 sqm (1,938 sq ft) total
Office: two offices (both for home office use); one of them also as a guest room
Overnight guests per year: unclear
Open or closed architecture: neither – a compromise
Conservative or modern construction: modern
Open kitchen: no, but with a sliding door that is mostly left open
Kitchen island: yes, at least a peninsula
Number of dining seats: 6 to 10
Fireplace: no
Music / stereo wall: 5.1 sound system with TV, so space needed behind the sofa
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: garage 6 x 9 m (20 x 30 ft)
Utility garden, greenhouse: no
House Design
Who designed it: do-it-yourself
What do you particularly like? Why?
All the required rooms were included; minimal circulation areas; no wasted space; utility room directly next to the bathroom on the upper floor
What do you not like? Why?
We don’t like the bathroom layout because there is little natural light in the room
Estimated cost according to architect/planner: about €450,000 - 500,000 (about $490,000 - 545,000) according to various offers
Personal budget limit for the house, including fittings: €500,000 (about $545,000)
Preferred heating technology: air-to-water heat pump + underfloor heating
If you have to give up something, which details/expansions
-can you do without:
-cannot do without:
all rooms (especially the two offices) are important and must be retained
Why did the design turn out as it is now?
A mix of many examples from various magazines, own ideas, and drawings from different sales consultants/building advisors
What is the most important/fundamental question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
- Do you see any fundamental issues with the floor plan? Do you have better ideas?
- Can the desired rooms be arranged more efficiently on less space?
- How do we find the right builder for our project? We have already had many discussions and received offers but are struggling to decide.
- Prefabricated house or solid house?
Thank you very much and best regards
Rapha811
we have already had several discussions with construction companies and have now arrived at a floor plan we are quite satisfied with. However, we are finding it difficult to choose the right builder and are not entirely sure if the floor plan is truly optimal. Also, we have not yet decided whether to build a prefabricated house or a solid (conventional) house.
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 765 sqm (8,236 sq ft)
Slope: no
Site coverage ratio: 0.4
Floor area ratio: 0.5
Building envelope, building line and boundary: 9.5 x 20 m (31 x 66 ft). The plot is 15.5 m (51 ft) wide and a setback of half the eave height (at least 3 m (10 ft)) must be maintained.
Boundary construction: possible for the garage
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 2 full stories (or a high knee wall > 2 m (6.5 ft) to keep the eave height under 6 m (20 ft))
Roof type: no specification known
Architectural style: no specification known
Orientation: see site plan
Maximum heights / limits: eave height max. 6 m (20 ft) or accordingly higher setback distance
Other requirements: none
Builders’ Requirements
Architectural style: modern
Roof shape: gable or hip roof
Building type: urban villa
Basement: no
Number of floors: 2 full stories (or a high knee wall > 2 m (6.5 ft) to keep the eave height under 6 m (20 ft))
Number of occupants, age: two people (28), potentially two children in the future
Space requirement for ground floor and upper floor: approx. 180 sqm (1,938 sq ft) total
Office: two offices (both for home office use); one of them also as a guest room
Overnight guests per year: unclear
Open or closed architecture: neither – a compromise
Conservative or modern construction: modern
Open kitchen: no, but with a sliding door that is mostly left open
Kitchen island: yes, at least a peninsula
Number of dining seats: 6 to 10
Fireplace: no
Music / stereo wall: 5.1 sound system with TV, so space needed behind the sofa
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: garage 6 x 9 m (20 x 30 ft)
Utility garden, greenhouse: no
House Design
Who designed it: do-it-yourself
What do you particularly like? Why?
All the required rooms were included; minimal circulation areas; no wasted space; utility room directly next to the bathroom on the upper floor
What do you not like? Why?
We don’t like the bathroom layout because there is little natural light in the room
Estimated cost according to architect/planner: about €450,000 - 500,000 (about $490,000 - 545,000) according to various offers
Personal budget limit for the house, including fittings: €500,000 (about $545,000)
Preferred heating technology: air-to-water heat pump + underfloor heating
If you have to give up something, which details/expansions
-can you do without:
-cannot do without:
all rooms (especially the two offices) are important and must be retained
Why did the design turn out as it is now?
A mix of many examples from various magazines, own ideas, and drawings from different sales consultants/building advisors
What is the most important/fundamental question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
- Do you see any fundamental issues with the floor plan? Do you have better ideas?
- Can the desired rooms be arranged more efficiently on less space?
- How do we find the right builder for our project? We have already had many discussions and received offers but are struggling to decide.
- Prefabricated house or solid house?
Thank you very much and best regards
Rapha811
driver55 schrieb:
Good sound is important, no question, but good systems can handle many different situations. Good systems can at best mitigate a complete disaster, but they definitely can’t work miracles.
driver55 schrieb:
I would simply focus on an attractive, efficient floor plan. Both are certainly possible, but this requires clear priorities from the start. Trying to fix such fundamental issues in the last five percent will most likely result in none of the requirements being satisfactorily met.
Not planning the acoustics of a 40-60m² (430-645 sq ft) open-plan room properly can result in a sound environment similar to a gymnasium or train station.
Minimal furnishings, hard floors, and walls don’t help either.
A 5.1 system for a 4x4m (13x13 ft) area won’t cover the entire open space.
If anyone is interested, they’re welcome to come listen with their own CD or Blu-ray on my next trip to Berlin—coffee will be available as well.
Minimal furnishings, hard floors, and walls don’t help either.
A 5.1 system for a 4x4m (13x13 ft) area won’t cover the entire open space.
If anyone is interested, they’re welcome to come listen with their own CD or Blu-ray on my next trip to Berlin—coffee will be available as well.
driver55 schrieb:
Is the house actually being built around the speaker positions here? 😀
Oh man. Good sound is definitely important, no question, but good systems work fine with many different placements.
I would just focus on a nice, efficient floor plan…I’m not exactly sure how the discussion about speaker positions got so out of hand here 😀 Actually, my point was just that the topic of "home theater" is quite important to us and that we would like to place speakers behind the sofa accordingly. To wrap this up: a nice, efficient floor plan is of course much more important, and if possible, it would be great to have speakers behind the sofa. They can also be mounted on the ceiling.
kbt09 schrieb:
Have you ever considered having living and TV/home theater as one room and cooking/dining as a separate room?
It also has the advantage that when you have guests separately, you have two separate living areas.We have thought about that as well, but we prefer a large living/dining room to be able to accommodate a big dining table for celebrations, if needed. Also, we want as many windows as possible facing west (left on the plan) to “extend” the room toward the terrace. Having a wall between the TV and dining area seems rather counterproductive in this case, right?
ypg schrieb:
A thoughtful feedback from you. That’s quite rare 🙂When you get so many helpful tips here, you want to give something back as well 🙂
ypg schrieb:
I remind you that you are planning for 2! children. Families sit together in front of the TV 😉Yes, that’s definitely true. Ultimately, we are currently discussing whether to position the TV 1 meter (3 feet) more to the left or right. Both options would be possible since there is no window planned or existing on that wall.
ypg schrieb:
If you like this idea, go for it. I don’t see speaker placement in the middle of the room working well for daily living. Can’t they be installed in or on the ceiling instead?Yes, that’s what we would do as well. Floor-standing speakers are always in the way. But ceiling-installed speakers should also not hang directly above a person but be positioned slightly behind.
ypg schrieb:
Well, seeing your house while living in it.
It’s often about sightlines—from a spot where you spend a lot of time, looking in one direction, and then there’s a view reaching far into the garden. Rooms open up; no one wants to look at a wall (not even in the bathroom!).
Preferably from the entrance door to the end of the garden, with a beautiful door and decoration in the hallway… or the kitchen area with dining table, then terrace door, nicely decorated terrace and then a lovely flower bed in the background…
You’re building a picture that you will see – visually pleasing. That’s what architecture is about 🙂Okay, I understand what you mean and tried to redesign the kitchen accordingly. The floor plan is at the end of my post. Now you can stand in front of the stove and look left toward the dining room (glass sliding door) and further out into the garden. What do you think?
ypg schrieb:
There are so many possibilities… I believe what you’re missing is the flexibility to see and use spaces differently. Everything seems assigned to a specific function you can close off with a door. A home office can also be integrated with other functions; the trend for flexible room use started over 20 years ago.
A kitchen is not just for cooking but part of living space; one of two offices can be open in a living corridor for everyone, etc.
…especially consider this if you realize you have too many rooms that aren’t really necessary or when your design has an overly long hallway without additional value. Then I would at least think if a more open hallway with multi-use could provide more benefits.I can relate to that point as well. However, we do not particularly like open floor plans and intentionally chose a closed kitchen. Therefore, I don’t see how the hallway on the ground floor can be avoided or how multi-use could add extra value here. Also, having two separate offices is important to us since we both plan to work at least 50% of our time from home in the future.
K1300S schrieb:
If you lie down there, the desired cinema sound will probably remain wishful thinking. You would be shadowed from two or three sides (if you lie side by side). For surround sound you really have to sit upright. Or do your ears grow in a different place than everyone else’s? 😉We know that sitting upright is necessary. So maybe “lying down” was the wrong term; I meant more that we’d put our feet up.
Würfel* schrieb:
If it was my house, I’d probably favor kbt09’s solution but move the windows. Big lift-and-slide door and an additional north-facing window. That opens the room most beautifully. Why speakers can’t be mounted on the wall behind the sofa (at its corners basically) escapes my understanding. We do it like that and the sound is great.
[ATTACH alt="erste-grundrissplanung-efh-190m2-525282-2.png"]64965[/ATTACH]We really like that option too, but the downside is that you can’t see into the main part of the garden (northwest direction). There would be a fence right in front of the north window.
Below is a revised floor plan. What do you think?
Rapha811 schrieb:
We have considered that as well, but we prefer a large living/dining area to possibly accommodate a big dining table for gatherings. Also, we want to have as much window space as possible on the west side (left side of the plan) to visually extend the room toward the terrace. A wall between the TV area and the dining area would be rather counterproductive, wouldn’t it?This would more likely be achieved by placing the living/TV area in the current kitchen space and having the dining/cooking area fully along the terrace side.The kitchen layout in your last plan is definitely not bad. You basically have well-defined paths: a work path and a through path/the “I’m grabbing something from the fridge” path 😉.
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