ᐅ House Floor Plan with a Separate Apartment – Suggestions for Improvement?
Created on: 31 Aug 2022 12:31
M
MarlenP
Hello everyone,
we plan to build a house with two residential units on a 472m2 (5,079 sq ft) plot of land (Unit 1: 143.39m2 (1,543 sq ft) / Unit 2: 69.57m2 (749 sq ft)).
The second unit is intended for my parents, while the main unit is for my family, which includes my spouse and three children (ages 7, 13, and 17).
Since our plot is relatively small, we want to build a compact house to maximize the garden space.
We are currently in the final planning stage and would appreciate your feedback on our project.
We have a feeling that we might have overlooked some important aspects or not paid enough attention to certain details because our planning focus was mainly on the compactness of the house.
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 472m2 (5,079 sq ft)
Slope: no
Site coverage ratio: 0.4
Floor area ratio: 0.6
Building envelope, building line, and boundary
Perimeter development: south and east
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 2
Roof type: hipped roof
Architectural style:
Orientation: south/west
Maximum heights / limits: 10m (33 ft)
Additional requirements
Client Requirements
Architectural style, roof type, building type: urban villa
Basement, number of storeys: no basement
Number of occupants and ages: Unit 1 – 5 people (ages 43, 38, 17, 13, 7); Unit 2 – 2 people, both over 60
Space needs on ground floor / upper floor:
Office: family use or home office? -
Number of guest stays per year: 2-3 times per year
Open or closed layout: open
Traditional or modern build style: modern
Open kitchen, with or without island: open kitchen, no island
Number of dining seats: 5
Fireplace: no
Music / stereo wall: no
Balcony or roof terrace: no
Garage or carport: garage
Utility garden, greenhouse: no
Other wishes / special features / daily routines, also reasons why certain features are included or excluded
The house should be compact but still feel spacious.
House Design
Planning by:
- planner from a construction company
- architect: by the architect
- do-it-yourself
What do you particularly like? Why? It is a relatively small house with two residential units.
What do you dislike? Why? Maybe some rooms (children’s rooms and the rooms in the secondary unit) are too small?
Price estimate according to architect/planner: approx. 600,000€
Personal budget limit for house including fittings: 650,000€
Preferred heating system: district heating
If you had to give up something, which details or expansions
- could you do without: basically nothing – we have already minimized everything.
- could you not do without: the planned number of rooms
Why did the design end up like it is? For example:
Standard design from the planner?
Which wishes were implemented by the architect? Yes
A mix of many examples from various magazines…
What makes it particularly good or bad in your opinion?
What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
We wanted the house to be as compact as possible. Maybe we focused too much on compactness and neglected other important aspects.
What do you like about the house, what do you not like so much, and what would be unacceptable?
we plan to build a house with two residential units on a 472m2 (5,079 sq ft) plot of land (Unit 1: 143.39m2 (1,543 sq ft) / Unit 2: 69.57m2 (749 sq ft)).
The second unit is intended for my parents, while the main unit is for my family, which includes my spouse and three children (ages 7, 13, and 17).
Since our plot is relatively small, we want to build a compact house to maximize the garden space.
We are currently in the final planning stage and would appreciate your feedback on our project.
We have a feeling that we might have overlooked some important aspects or not paid enough attention to certain details because our planning focus was mainly on the compactness of the house.
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 472m2 (5,079 sq ft)
Slope: no
Site coverage ratio: 0.4
Floor area ratio: 0.6
Building envelope, building line, and boundary
Perimeter development: south and east
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 2
Roof type: hipped roof
Architectural style:
Orientation: south/west
Maximum heights / limits: 10m (33 ft)
Additional requirements
Client Requirements
Architectural style, roof type, building type: urban villa
Basement, number of storeys: no basement
Number of occupants and ages: Unit 1 – 5 people (ages 43, 38, 17, 13, 7); Unit 2 – 2 people, both over 60
Space needs on ground floor / upper floor:
Office: family use or home office? -
Number of guest stays per year: 2-3 times per year
Open or closed layout: open
Traditional or modern build style: modern
Open kitchen, with or without island: open kitchen, no island
Number of dining seats: 5
Fireplace: no
Music / stereo wall: no
Balcony or roof terrace: no
Garage or carport: garage
Utility garden, greenhouse: no
Other wishes / special features / daily routines, also reasons why certain features are included or excluded
The house should be compact but still feel spacious.
House Design
Planning by:
- planner from a construction company
- architect: by the architect
- do-it-yourself
What do you particularly like? Why? It is a relatively small house with two residential units.
What do you dislike? Why? Maybe some rooms (children’s rooms and the rooms in the secondary unit) are too small?
Price estimate according to architect/planner: approx. 600,000€
Personal budget limit for house including fittings: 650,000€
Preferred heating system: district heating
If you had to give up something, which details or expansions
- could you do without: basically nothing – we have already minimized everything.
- could you not do without: the planned number of rooms
Why did the design end up like it is? For example:
Standard design from the planner?
Which wishes were implemented by the architect? Yes
A mix of many examples from various magazines…
What makes it particularly good or bad in your opinion?
What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
We wanted the house to be as compact as possible. Maybe we focused too much on compactness and neglected other important aspects.
What do you like about the house, what do you not like so much, and what would be unacceptable?
Cooking and dining should stay on the ground floor by the garden. Just not the living area.
Carrying things up and down isn’t that much effort. Usually, there’s nothing in the living room that’s needed in the garden.
You can take bowls, snacks, and glasses with you when you leave anyway.
The second staircase takes up space. Try drawing two proper dining tables on the ground floor with the necessary clearance around them. They need space.
You have a room depth of 2.64 meters (8 feet 8 inches). The minimum clearance for seating is 80 cm (31 inches) between the table edge and the wall on each side.
That means one or two people would have their backs to the corridor door, the passage to the kitchen would be very tight, and it would be difficult to walk with a basket.
On top of that, the whole setup would be right in front of the door to the terrace.
Carrying things up and down isn’t that much effort. Usually, there’s nothing in the living room that’s needed in the garden.
You can take bowls, snacks, and glasses with you when you leave anyway.
The second staircase takes up space. Try drawing two proper dining tables on the ground floor with the necessary clearance around them. They need space.
You have a room depth of 2.64 meters (8 feet 8 inches). The minimum clearance for seating is 80 cm (31 inches) between the table edge and the wall on each side.
That means one or two people would have their backs to the corridor door, the passage to the kitchen would be very tight, and it would be difficult to walk with a basket.
On top of that, the whole setup would be right in front of the door to the terrace.
Would the parents feel comfortable there? Has this been honestly discussed, and are they really aware of what kind of tiny space they would be living in?
Take away the hallway since it’s not a living area, and you’re left with a generous 21m2 (225 sq ft) for a "multi-purpose room," plus an 11m2 (118 sq ft) bedroom and a 4m2 (43 sq ft) tiny bathroom. Do you have a sense of these sizes? That’s about a 36m2 (388 sq ft) apartment… wow. And then upstairs are the "frequent" guests. Let that sink in.
In this context, I also doubt that the furniture is drawn to scale here. The dining table, for example, looks more suited to children’s dolls...
I don’t mean this negatively, don’t get me wrong, I’m just questioning this. It looks very cramped, squeezed, and confined. In my opinion, the granny flat would barely be enough for a student, but for the parents?
Take away the hallway since it’s not a living area, and you’re left with a generous 21m2 (225 sq ft) for a "multi-purpose room," plus an 11m2 (118 sq ft) bedroom and a 4m2 (43 sq ft) tiny bathroom. Do you have a sense of these sizes? That’s about a 36m2 (388 sq ft) apartment… wow. And then upstairs are the "frequent" guests. Let that sink in.
In this context, I also doubt that the furniture is drawn to scale here. The dining table, for example, looks more suited to children’s dolls...
I don’t mean this negatively, don’t get me wrong, I’m just questioning this. It looks very cramped, squeezed, and confined. In my opinion, the granny flat would barely be enough for a student, but for the parents?
To be honest: I’m looking for a family bathroom. Are you serious that five people share a shower room while the granny flat has two washrooms with two showers?? 😱
The hallway on the upper floor is very spacious… on the ground floor, I would rather sketch in typical furniture instead of the prefab options in the program. The kitchen is borderline small for five people… there’s definitely room for improvement or potential to make it bigger.
How old are the parents? Is this being built in an urban area or in the countryside?
The hallway on the upper floor is very spacious… on the ground floor, I would rather sketch in typical furniture instead of the prefab options in the program. The kitchen is borderline small for five people… there’s definitely room for improvement or potential to make it bigger.
How old are the parents? Is this being built in an urban area or in the countryside?
MarlenP schrieb:
Two parking spaces will probably not be enough. However, we can park additional cars on the north side of the house. The architect did not include these because the building authority might raise objections.How many parking spaces are required according to your zoning plan or parking regulations? You need to show that number in your building permit / planning permission application as well.
I assume the two parking spaces are planned inside the garage. Have you considered how you will fit two cars in there and get them in and out, especially through the 4m (13 ft) small door?
S
Sunshine38731 Aug 2022 17:22I agree with the others. This is not a good floor plan. I would also keep the granny flat on the ground floor. Remove the current bathroom there and convert it into the utility room for apartment 2. Take out the staircase, and you'll have a nice 30m2 (320ft2) open space. Guests could even sleep on a comfortable sofa bed, which only fits if the staircase and bathroom are removed. Then you can redesign the upper floor completely, with a properly sized bathroom for you (under 12m2 (130ft2)) and more space overall.
The garage is way too big for one car and just barely large enough for two cars. Two cars won’t fit through the door, and inside the garage, the triangular shape at the front leaves too little usable space. Typically, a comfortable garage should be about 6x6m (20x20ft). You’ll need that. So either move the house 1m (3ft) to the right or reduce the living room space downstairs by 1m (3ft) and add a small bay window to create a nice spacious feel. Since you won’t need that much space upstairs anyway.
You can see the floor plan really needs to be redesigned completely. The fact that your architect presented something like this should also make you think.
The garage is way too big for one car and just barely large enough for two cars. Two cars won’t fit through the door, and inside the garage, the triangular shape at the front leaves too little usable space. Typically, a comfortable garage should be about 6x6m (20x20ft). You’ll need that. So either move the house 1m (3ft) to the right or reduce the living room space downstairs by 1m (3ft) and add a small bay window to create a nice spacious feel. Since you won’t need that much space upstairs anyway.
You can see the floor plan really needs to be redesigned completely. The fact that your architect presented something like this should also make you think.
When I look at this calmly, it all feels like a big deception. The architect simply leaves out important details because they are not feasible. In my opinion, the terrace of the granny flat is also too close to the boundary and would only be allowed under a few exceptional building plans. The garage is too narrow for two cars, and the furniture is much too small – it’s all dressed up to get approval. I would be very cautious here.
It would be helpful to know the exact dimensions of the plot. Then you could redraw it and experiment a bit.
It would be helpful to know the exact dimensions of the plot. Then you could redraw it and experiment a bit.
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