ᐅ House and Floor Plan Design – Initial Architect’s Draft Available

Created on: 14 Oct 2020 18:29
P
Pinkiponk
As previously announced, our old house in Baden-Württemberg has now been sold, we have moved to the Leipzig district, and we can now focus on our new house. Due to our age, we have deliberately downsized both the lot size and the living space. We have a first architect’s draft. I have already noted a few change requests and am now looking forward to your additions, criticism, and suggestions. If further plans or similar are needed, I will gladly provide them as long as I have them available.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to help me.

Development Plan / Restrictions
Lot size: 567sqm (6,105 sqft)
Slope: visually not noticeable; if this is important information, I will look for where to find it
Site occupancy index: 0.35
Floor area ratio: 0.8
Building envelope, building line, and boundary: see attached drawing
Edge development: not allowed/desired on our part
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 2
Roof type: hipped roof
Style: classic, conservative
Orientation: ?
Maximum heights/limits: “Top of raw floor slab of ground floor to ridge height of main roof max. 11.5 meters (38 feet)”; “Top of raw floor slab of ground floor to eave height of main roof max. 7.0 meters (23 feet)”
Further requirements

Client Requirements
Style, roof shape, building type: we are trying to approximate the house shown in the photo below; however, without the gable projection; classic/conservative, hipped roof, town house
Basement, floors: no basement, 2 floors
Number of occupants, age: 1 male, 64 years old – 1 female, 58 years old
Space requirements on ground floor and upper floor:
Ground floor → kitchen, shower bathroom, living/lounge room, utility room with kitchenette and floor drain, hallway;
Upper floor → bathroom with tub, bedroom, 2 “wardrobe and storage rooms”
Office: family use or home office? Couple without children, no home office
Number of overnight guests per year: 10
Open or closed architecture: open on the outside, closed on the inside
Conservative or modern construction: conservative
Open kitchen, cooking island: no, classical L-shaped kitchen or similar (the plan includes a cooking island that will not be built)
Number of dining seats: 2 in the kitchen, up to 6–8 in the living/lounge room
Fireplace: gas stove chimney
Music/stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: both no
Garage, carport: 2 arched carports
Vegetable garden, greenhouse: both no
Additional wishes/particulars/daily routine, also reasons why some things should or should not be

House Design
Who created the plan:
– Planner from a construction company: yes, in cooperation with the clients
– Architect: unclear
– Do-it-yourself: yes, in cooperation with the prefabricated house manufacturer’s planner
What do you especially like? Why? Many windows and patio doors, lots of natural light and fresh air
What do you not like? Why? The windows on the upper floor are too low in the plan, but this will be changed
Price estimate according to architect/planner: already commissioned offer/order €312,780.00 (without carport, outdoor facilities, additional construction costs, land, ...)
Personal price limit for the house including equipment: €400,000.00
Preferred heating system: gas condensing boiler plus solar thermal (according to legal requirements)

If you have to forgo something, which details/upgrades
– What you can give up: we are already giving up shutters, whirlpool
– What you cannot give up: many windows and patio doors, muntins in the windows and doors

Why is the design as it is? For example:
A mixture of many examples from various magazines…
What do you think makes it good or bad? It generally meets our wishes. On the ground floor, we want access to the garden from every room. We find symmetry more pleasing than asymmetry. Few different window and door formats. No horizontal (“lying”) windows. Each of us has a separate room for clothing and such, so that no wardrobes have to be placed in the bedroom. We do not want a separate dressing room.

What is the most important/fundamental question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
The roof seems somewhat steep to me. Is a 30-degree roof pitch for a house with a base of 9.40m x 9.40m (31 feet x 31 feet) too steep? The standard according to the provider is 22 degrees. That seemed too flat, or you can hardly see the roof.

The development plan was too large to upload; I will try again in a separate post in this thread.

Garden outlined in red in the center, forest/field on the left, street on the right, building north/south.


Two-story, light beige house with white windows and entrance, surrounded by a garden.


Floor plan of a house with terrace, garden, and carport on the lot.

Floor plan of a residence with interior layout, dimension lines, and property boundaries.

Section AA-AA of a small house with gable roof: interior rooms, stairs, windows, outdoor area.

Architectural drawing: two two-story houses with gable roofs; left with solar thermal, southwest orientation.

Architectural plan: two houses with gable roofs, north and east views, streetscape, car and people.
Tolentino14 Apr 2022 13:49
Mahri23 schrieb:

Later, our landscaping contractor delivered and adjusted the rest (gutters, stones, patio slabs).
He seems to be a good one. Could you please share the contact details? By the way, your fence builder only responded once and never sent a quote – not that it’s your fault, but it seems he’s doing well…
Mahri2314 Apr 2022 14:06
Sorry, I would like to, but he is fully booked for this year. I already had to persuade him to do some tile installation work for me, with my support.

Regarding fences, they all seem to be very busy and currently do not need any new projects. My landscaper also wanted to collaborate with him, but unfortunately, that didn’t work out either. Well, sometimes things are just strange. It’s a pity it didn’t work out. 🙄
Tolentino14 Apr 2022 15:14
Another Polish fence builder has already sent me direct mail twice but does not respond. That’s why I’m just doing it myself now.
However, I still need a fall protection system. I can’t forge that myself.
P
Pinkiponk
14 Apr 2022 15:19
The topic of fence or no fence interests me. For this, I am starting a separate thread with a survey. We did not have any fences at our previous house and would also appreciate that for our new property.
Tolentino14 Apr 2022 15:39
We simply need a fence because of the poodle. Otherwise, he would explore the surroundings, and so far I’m not confident or trusting enough that he would definitely come back unharmed.
Apart from that, I could also manage with just a hedge. The neighbors would be fine without a fence as well. But my wife prefers a 2.5m (8 ft) high privacy screen that she can cover with vines, roses, and berries. She would also prefer a secluded location.
Mahri2314 Apr 2022 15:51
Tolentino schrieb:

They would also prefer a secluded location.
Well, you can't have everything. 😉

If we didn’t have the fence, we would also be "hosts" to 4 dogs from the immediate neighbors. We already have the neighbors' 4 cats visiting us daily for petting... we just aren’t allowed or supposed to feed them. 😀