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?
ypg schrieb:
Wow, honestly: an architect doesn’t have to come up with something immediately. A creative professional can take a few days to be creative. But if they are allowed to excuse themselves from their work just because the client suggests something, that’s a problem for me. You’ve already given them the freedom not to think… 😱Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound dismissive about the architect not having an immediate solution. It just shows how complicated this planning is. What he immediately recognized was that the ground floor of the granny flat wasn’t properly designed and definitely needs some changes. I only shared my suggestion with him because, apart from removing the staircase, he didn’t have any other solution ready.
ypg schrieb:
Yes, if I’m thinking correctly, it results in an unstructured rectangular room that is very difficult to divide. Could you perhaps suggest how this room (meaning the small kitchen and TV sitting area) could best be arranged?
Sunshine387 schrieb:
The idea is, of course, a compromise solution that might cost you less and can be implemented quickly. But consider this: how is the utility room supposed to be accessible from the street if the garage door is in front of it? I believe that’s the main problem. That is indeed a compromise solution; on the other hand, you’re also sacrificing quite a bit of living space just for a utility/technical room.
Yesterday, I visited a house in a development area where the utility room was also relocated into the garage. So it is possible. However, I will speak again today with a technician from the municipal utilities to get clarification on this.
Sunshine387 schrieb:
In my opinion, it still doesn’t make sense to build the house with this floor plan. What else do you think is not optimally solved in this floor plan (besides the secondary flat)? Could you possibly list the individual points?
Sunshine387 schrieb:
But if you want to push it through quickly now, the alternatives naturally aren’t optimal either. We don’t want to rush anything now; we have already spent quite some time on planning (some of it even wasted). At this point, a few weeks more or less do not matter anymore.
Sunshine387 schrieb:
But you won’t be able to sell the house in a few years at 99% like this without major renovations. Then your house won’t be an asset but a devalued property. We don’t want to think about selling yet. However, what you’re saying sounds quite serious (and maybe right), but could you please specify exactly what bothers you about the floor plan and, if you were to modify it, how you would do so (like in post #56)?
Bertram100 schrieb:
Yes, the guest toilet is spacious enough to use the toilet comfortably (even for men standing :cool 🙂 and has room for a small sink. I have no complaints. It’s obviously not a luxury showpiece room (just wait, I’ve ordered tiles 😀), but it’s really perfectly fine. I would design it the same way again.That sounds good :-) Could you please share your floor plan here? Despite searching the forum, I couldn’t immediately find your floor plan.
MarlenP schrieb:
Yesterday, I visited a house in a new development where the utility room was relocated into the garage. So it is possible. However, I will speak again with a technician from the municipal utilities today to be sure.
If you keep ignoring the problems, you will never find a solution. So tell me, where should the cars be parked if the garage becomes the utility room? And don’t forget, there need to be two spaces, with a distance of 5m (16 feet) from the street. Or has that changed? Then please write it down. The same goes for whether it’s allowed to build terraces within the setback area. And if the garage is converted into a utility room, the building envelope changes, which means the building permit/planning permission needs to be updated. Are you now planning to submit a new application?K a t j a schrieb:
If you keep ignoring the problems, you will never find a solution. So tell me, where should the cars be parked if the garage is turned into a utility room? And don’t forget, there must be 2 spaces at a distance of 5m (16 feet) from the street. Or has that changed? If so, please let us know. Also, whether it’s allowed to build terraces within the setback zone. And if the garage is converted into a utility room, the building envelope of the house changes, which means the building permit / planning permission will need to be updated. Do you now want to submit a new application? I spoke with the building authority today; regarding parking spaces, there are no major restrictions from their side. In theory, we could still cover another 28m² (300 sq ft) with paving and park a car in front of the house on the north side. The staff at the building authority even said that parking two cars in a row (one in the garage and one in front) is now generally more accepted. Whether we want to do that is a different question.
I also mentioned the utility room in the garage. That should be possible, but we need to provide a drawing from the architect to them.
I spoke again with the local utilities today. They said it would basically be possible to locate the utility room in the garage as long as it is accessible from the outside. A separate door next to the garage door could be planned for the utility room. But they want to review this again once we submit new drawings.
K a t j a schrieb:
Do you now want to submit a new application? If necessary, we will do that. We are currently considering different options and hope to decide soon. It is important to us that whatever we do, we do it with a clear conscience and not just because we feel pressured to take action.
MarlenP schrieb:
Sorry, I didn’t mean to be dismissive by saying that the architect didn’t have a solution right away. It just shows how complex this planning is. That’s not how I understood you either. I mean it’s wrong to guide the architect too early in one direction instead of allowing time to possibly come up with an alternative solution.
MarlenP schrieb:
Could you perhaps suggest how to best arrange this space (meaning the small kitchen and TV seating area)? Before we discuss this as if it were the guest room in the granny flat, the utility room outside, the multipurpose room in the granny flat, or your bedroom in the utility room individually, here is a quick draft based on your external dimensions, your garden layout, and your entrance doors. The original ideas were not bad at all, just the staircase concept was quite wrong (at least for seniors).
But be careful: the wall sizes vary, sometimes only 10cm (4 inches), I didn’t adjust much except the cabinets, which are 60cm (24 inches) deep, 120cm (47 inches) wide, or 3 meters (10 feet) wide.
The windows upstairs roughly match those on the ground floor.
P.S. a straight staircase doesn’t make sense with your issues.
Similar topics