ᐅ Floor plan after initial planning meeting, 140 m², one and a half stories

Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 505
Slope: No
Floor area ratio (FAR): 0.4
Building window, building line, and boundary: 3 m (10 feet)
Edge development: not planned
Number of parking spaces: 2, paved only
Number of floors: 1.5
Roof style: clipped hip roof
Architectural style: modern, timeless
Orientation: south-east
Maximum height / limits: 4.5 m (15 feet) eaves height
Other requirements: photovoltaic panels only on one side

Client Requirements
Architectural style, roof type, building type
Basement, floors: No, 1.5
Number of occupants, age: currently 2 (26-27), planned for two children
Space requirements on ground and upper floor: well, whatever 140 m² (1507 sq ft) allows. Upstairs: 2 children’s rooms, 1 bedroom, and an optional study
Office: family use or home office? Home office
Overnight guests per year: few
Open or closed layout: open
Conservative or modern construction: modern
Open kitchen, kitchen island: yes
Number of dining seats: 4-6
Fireplace: yes

________
Hello, I'm looking forward to your feedback. We had the first planning meeting today and now have the first sketches. Most of what we had planned beforehand has been implemented.
What we especially like:

the open living concept downstairs, which makes very efficient use of space.

we also like the bedroom upstairs. When both children are here, the niche can be used openly as a study or, if needed, separated by a drywall partition to create an additional full room.

What is not ideal:
The location of the bathroom downstairs is not perfect, but we couldn’t improve it without either
A) adding a hallway
B) losing space on the south side

The walls there will also be made of calcium silicate blocks to improve sound insulation somewhat. Generally, we are an open family, and visitors who don’t like it can just go upstairs.

So this works for us.

Another less ideal aspect is the location of the fireplace. It comes out of the clipped side of the roof here. But it’s okay, not a deal breaker.

I’m looking forward to your feedback!

Richooo schrieb:

The open and space-efficient open-plan living concept downstairs.

We also really like the bedroom upstairs. Once both children are here, the nook can easily be turned into an open home office or, if necessary, separated with a drywall partition to create an additional full room.

The walls there will be made of sand-lime brick for better sound insulation. We are generally open-minded people, and visitors who don’t like it can simply go upstairs.

One downside is the location of the fireplace. It comes out through the hipped side of the roof here. But it’s manageable. Not a big deal.

Personally, I find the design quite disappointing.

1. It’s definitely open. Is there really no door planned between the entrance area and the staircase? Keep in mind that all cooking odors will spread throughout the entire house.
2. I think that dead-end space in the bedroom, created just because there was leftover space, is really terrible. The square meters should be well planned and not just “included” because the ground floor area results in the upper floor size.
2.5. Hallway area is usually “dead” space, but there should be a bit more. Passing traffic will get tight, and you have no natural light at all in the upstairs hallway.
3. What else would the interior walls be made of if not sand-lime brick? I hope that’s not being sold to you as an extra.
4. It’s manageable, no big deal, if you have all options in the planning phase for an investment volume of at least 350,000 plus additional costs. Well, it can be done. But having a freestanding chimney right in the middle of the upstairs bedroom borders on torture.
5. Having the bathroom accessed directly from the kitchen is at least unusual. I would have expected you to be more open-minded. As a guest after a chili dinner, I’d find it very uncomfortable if I had to air out the bathroom for five minutes to avoid bringing those smells into the main area.

Dear @OWLer

Thank you very much for your detailed message and your feedback.
I will briefly address the points one by one.

1) That’s right, there is indeed no door planned. It wouldn’t fit there anyway. Besides, I find the hallway space wasted. It should be enough for a small coat rack and a bench. That space is sufficient for that. The hallway itself should be fairly bright due to the window and a large glass element next to the entrance door on the ground floor. We are still considering adding a window on the upper floor.
But it wouldn’t bother me without one either.

2) The space you affectionately called the “blind gut” in the bedroom was intentionally designed that way by us. We also had a floor plan where the office was in a different location, but that made all the rooms upstairs appear smaller. This way, there is a long sightline and the room there (8m2 (86 sq ft)) can later be separated into an office. For now, it is meant to serve as a fitness corner. A walk-in closet or similar would of course also be possible.

3) To my knowledge, the interior walls are made of aerated concrete.

4) Not quite, the house costs are around 300k plus additional construction costs, but in the end, that doesn’t really matter. It’s a lot of money anyway. I had no idea where else the chimney could go so that it would be in a reasonable place on the ground floor. That’s my problem. The development plan specifies that the chimney can only run along the central axes of the roof (something to do with the maximum height it can protrude).

5) If that situation were to occur, I would just tell our guest that they are welcome to use the upstairs bathroom as well. That way, they can enjoy peace and quiet even the second time.

Overall, it’s certainly impossible to create a floor plan that perfectly combines everything. That’s why I also said “no big deal.” You will have to make compromises in any case.

Good smells wouldn’t bother me now, but someone cooking on the stove while using the bathroom is just too much.
We’ve already discussed the house before… if I remember correctly, nothing has been improved?!
You share your idea with the draftsman, and they redraw it in a customer-friendly way. And now?

ypg schrieb:

Pleasant smells wouldn’t bother me, but having the toilet near the stove is definitely too much.
We’ve already discussed this house before… if I remember correctly, nothing has been improved?!
You provide your idea to the designer, and they redraw it in a customer-friendly way. So, what now?

Well, there have been some changes. The widths of the corridors leading to the stairs, for example, have been adjusted and widened, as well as the living room. But these are mostly details. Previously it was 3.70 meters (12 feet) wide, and now it’s 3.93 meters (13 feet), which is close to the often requested 4 meters (13 feet).

Of course, she has taken our suggestions into account and tried to implement them.

So far, there has been a lot of criticism. However, no constructive proposal has been made on how to better realize our wishes.

ypg schrieb:

Nice smells wouldn’t bother me now, but having the toilet in the kitchen area is definitely too much.
We’ve discussed the house before… if I remember correctly, nothing has been improved?!
You give your idea to the draftsman, and they redraw it in a customer-friendly way. And now?

I just wonder if the bathroom really causes inconvenience in daily life. If it bothers visitors, they can go upstairs. For us, living together, it doesn’t matter at all. And 99% of the day it’s just a wall with a closed door. Of course, ideally, I would have swapped the utility room and bathroom. But I believe in everyday life it hardly makes a noticeable difference.