ᐅ Own floor plan design for a 180 sqm urban villa with double garage – feedback requested
Created on: 30 Dec 2022 10:14
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dimba234
Hello everyone,
after being an active silent reader here for quite some time, I decided it was time to register.
A few weeks ago, we applied for a building plot with our local municipality and have now received the approval for the land. Although we plan to start building at the beginning of 2024, we are already putting a lot of thought into how our house might look. We have created a rough floor plan draft ourselves. I would like to ask you for feedback and suggestions.
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 576 sqm (6,200 sq ft)
Slope: no
Site occupancy index (floor area ratio for ground coverage): 0.3
Floor space index (floor area ratio for all floors): 0.6
Building envelope, building line and boundary: building boundary as per development plan
Edge development: see attachment
Number of parking spaces: at least 1.5 parking spaces
Number of floors: 2 full stories
Roof type: hip roof, gable roof, pitched roof, saddle roof
Architectural style: -
Orientation: see attachment
Maximum height / limits: eaves height 7 m (23 ft)
Other requirements: -
Homeowners’ Requirements
Architectural style, roof type, building type: single-family house with two full stories and a hip roof
Basement, floors: no basement, two full floors
Number of people, ages: 2 adults, 2 children (2 1/2 years and newborn)
Room needs on ground floor and upper floor:
Office: family use or home office? Two offices (ground floor + upper floor)
Guest bedrooms per year: -
Open or closed layout: open living and dining area
Traditional or modern construction: modern
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open kitchen, kitchen island not necessarily required
Number of dining seats: 6-8
Fireplace: no
Music/stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: double garage with storage space; carport with shed also possible
Utility garden, greenhouse: no
Other wishes / special features / daily routine, including reasons why certain things are preferred or avoided: -
House Design
Who designed it:
-Do-it-Yourself
What do you particularly like? Why? Two offices; open living and dining area with cozy sofa corner; children’s rooms facing south; master bedroom facing north; utility room with access to the garage
What do you not like? Why? Overall, we like our design. We want to maximize the use of our garden area on the south side. To get more out of it, the house would need to be narrower and longer (currently 11 x 10.5 m (36 x 34.5 ft)). In our designs, this always failed because the rooms become too narrow and elongated. As laypersons, we probably overlook major planning mistakes. So, we ask here for constructive criticism and suggestions.
Cost estimate according to architect/planner: -
Personal budget limit for the house, including fittings: 500,000
Preferred heating technology: -
If you have to give up one or more details/additions,
-what can you do without: garage, the second office/guest room
-what you cannot do without: -
Why did the design end up like this? E.g.
-Collection of ideas from catalogs and internet searches
What is the most important / fundamental question about the floor plan, summarized in 130 characters?
The main question is whether we have sensibly planned the layout and arrangement of garage, house entrance, and rooms in relation to the plot and its orientation. Is the design coherent overall?
The attached image with the house on the plot (Entwurf.jpg) is a draft from the responsible planning office for the building area. We want to build the house and garage aligned in the same way. However, the house will be placed at the front building boundary and the garage shifted towards the rear plot boundary.
PS: We created the design with a rudimentary online tool. Unfortunately, the tool does not allow adjusting room names (therefore “playroom” instead of “children’s room,” etc.), but I think you understand what is meant.
I look forward to your feedback 🙂!
after being an active silent reader here for quite some time, I decided it was time to register.
A few weeks ago, we applied for a building plot with our local municipality and have now received the approval for the land. Although we plan to start building at the beginning of 2024, we are already putting a lot of thought into how our house might look. We have created a rough floor plan draft ourselves. I would like to ask you for feedback and suggestions.
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 576 sqm (6,200 sq ft)
Slope: no
Site occupancy index (floor area ratio for ground coverage): 0.3
Floor space index (floor area ratio for all floors): 0.6
Building envelope, building line and boundary: building boundary as per development plan
Edge development: see attachment
Number of parking spaces: at least 1.5 parking spaces
Number of floors: 2 full stories
Roof type: hip roof, gable roof, pitched roof, saddle roof
Architectural style: -
Orientation: see attachment
Maximum height / limits: eaves height 7 m (23 ft)
Other requirements: -
Homeowners’ Requirements
Architectural style, roof type, building type: single-family house with two full stories and a hip roof
Basement, floors: no basement, two full floors
Number of people, ages: 2 adults, 2 children (2 1/2 years and newborn)
Room needs on ground floor and upper floor:
Office: family use or home office? Two offices (ground floor + upper floor)
Guest bedrooms per year: -
Open or closed layout: open living and dining area
Traditional or modern construction: modern
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open kitchen, kitchen island not necessarily required
Number of dining seats: 6-8
Fireplace: no
Music/stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: double garage with storage space; carport with shed also possible
Utility garden, greenhouse: no
Other wishes / special features / daily routine, including reasons why certain things are preferred or avoided: -
House Design
Who designed it:
-Do-it-Yourself
What do you particularly like? Why? Two offices; open living and dining area with cozy sofa corner; children’s rooms facing south; master bedroom facing north; utility room with access to the garage
What do you not like? Why? Overall, we like our design. We want to maximize the use of our garden area on the south side. To get more out of it, the house would need to be narrower and longer (currently 11 x 10.5 m (36 x 34.5 ft)). In our designs, this always failed because the rooms become too narrow and elongated. As laypersons, we probably overlook major planning mistakes. So, we ask here for constructive criticism and suggestions.
Cost estimate according to architect/planner: -
Personal budget limit for the house, including fittings: 500,000
Preferred heating technology: -
If you have to give up one or more details/additions,
-what can you do without: garage, the second office/guest room
-what you cannot do without: -
Why did the design end up like this? E.g.
-Collection of ideas from catalogs and internet searches
What is the most important / fundamental question about the floor plan, summarized in 130 characters?
The main question is whether we have sensibly planned the layout and arrangement of garage, house entrance, and rooms in relation to the plot and its orientation. Is the design coherent overall?
The attached image with the house on the plot (Entwurf.jpg) is a draft from the responsible planning office for the building area. We want to build the house and garage aligned in the same way. However, the house will be placed at the front building boundary and the garage shifted towards the rear plot boundary.
PS: We created the design with a rudimentary online tool. Unfortunately, the tool does not allow adjusting room names (therefore “playroom” instead of “children’s room,” etc.), but I think you understand what is meant.
I look forward to your feedback 🙂!
hanghaus2023 schrieb:
180 m2 (1937 sq ft) is hardly achievable with this budget.Regarding the fourth common misconception among home builders: if you were to switch to a different general contractor while basically using a Viebrock house with only minor modifications, it would automatically become noticeably more budget-friendly. No, not without downgrading the features.https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
Regarding the orientation, this is how I would personally approach it (quickly sketched without focusing on details).
The bathroom downpipe is hidden, private areas face north where there are no neighbors, and the children’s rooms are sunny. (I adjusted this a bit because I find 18m² (194 ft²) for children’s rooms excessively large. However, lightweight partition walls could be used flexibly to zone the children’s rooms or to provide them with a small living corridor. Or not. Currently, the children’s rooms are 14m² (150 ft²).)
The living room is positioned in the southwest/west for good light, and the work and dining areas are bright. The rest faces north, offering a view from the office for reflection, as well as from the toilet 😉
The bathroom downpipe is hidden, private areas face north where there are no neighbors, and the children’s rooms are sunny. (I adjusted this a bit because I find 18m² (194 ft²) for children’s rooms excessively large. However, lightweight partition walls could be used flexibly to zone the children’s rooms or to provide them with a small living corridor. Or not. Currently, the children’s rooms are 14m² (150 ft²).)
The living room is positioned in the southwest/west for good light, and the work and dining areas are bright. The rest faces north, offering a view from the office for reflection, as well as from the toilet 😉
Well, the draftsman has done a fairly accurate drawing of your design. Even though it comes across as uninspired and unoriginal, it’s probably exactly what you want. In my opinion, the hallway is a bit too generous. I’d only expect that width starting from 250m² (2,690 sq ft). You could gain a lot more usable space. A living room depth of 3.44m (11 ft 3 in) is almost ridiculously small for a total area of 180m² (1,937 sq ft). The same goes for the artificially extended storage room under the stairs. Get rid of it and bring the wall back down to the top stair landing. I would remove it entirely and place the coat closet underneath the stairs instead.
The oversized kitchen will certainly be expensive. A somewhat smaller one would probably suffice.
I would definitely swap the office and bathroom, otherwise child 2 will constantly be woken up whenever someone showers or uses the toilet.
Overall, I don’t see a major issue here, but it’s not a dream house either.
The oversized kitchen will certainly be expensive. A somewhat smaller one would probably suffice.
I would definitely swap the office and bathroom, otherwise child 2 will constantly be woken up whenever someone showers or uses the toilet.
Overall, I don’t see a major issue here, but it’s not a dream house either.
The straightforward honesty here is actually very refreshing.
My concern with an independent architect is that not every so-called professional necessarily has creativity and logic in abundance. That is why we tried to adopt a proven design (Maxime 710 II on the ground floor and Rötzer Ziegel Stadtvilla 150 on the upper floor), instead of potentially burning a fortune upfront on a floor plan that is completely nonsensical.
Correct, the floor plan is not aligned properly and needs to be rotated about 45 degrees so that the lower corner of the entrance side faces west. Regarding the rooms, our thinking was: utility room and master bedroom do not need any sun. We only sleep in our bedroom. There is no TV or anything else there. The rest of the day is spent in the other rooms. For the offices, I do like being able to look out at the street during my home office time, to see who comes home, if the mail carrier rings the door, etc. Just looking out onto the field to the east is a bit boring.
Family bathroom facing the street? We are planning the terrace on the south side. Southwest didn’t occur to us since that side faces the street. That’s why the house is set forward. I agree with you that we are sacrificing quite a bit of space on a nice side of the plot.
I will discuss this again with my wife. The fence on the street side can only be 1 meter high. Therefore, we initially decided to place the terrace only on the south side.
And many thanks for your idea in the next post. The ground floor strongly reminds me of the Fingerhaus Juno 500 / 501. We actually considered it but decided against that floor plan. Everything feels a bit convoluted, so I would like to see the plan in real life, but there is no show home available. Also, the guest toilet is not directly at the entrance. If the kids come home completely dirty, they would have to run through half the house first. Your suggestion is better in that respect, with the guest toilet in front of the living room. I really like the living/dining room and kitchen facing southwest. I’m still unsure about the upper floor with the children’s corridor. Doesn’t that waste quite a bit of space? The rooms could just as well be a bit larger, even if not absolutely necessary.
I have a quote for the house with the shown dimensions, including plumbing, tiled bathrooms, and tiled utility room, with the remaining walls and floors as self-install—just under €380,000. I consider another €120,000 for the garage, incidental building costs (partially included in the quote), and a kitchen realistic. Even if we completely overhaul our floor plan, the built footprint remains unchanged, so the price won’t change either. Yes, landscaping is not yet included here. And I know the forum opinion differs: the house price per square meter should/can cost €3,000 and well above. That might be true in Munich or Hamburg—but not here. So I won’t respond again to comments like “budget 500k is not enough” or “plan for one million.”
I already mentioned the too-wide corridor, extended staircase, and narrow living room above—they are all definitely improvable. Swapping office and bathroom: in our apartment, the bathroom adjoins the bedroom. That has never bothered us. Here, only the bathtub is next to the children’s room; toilet and shower are on the other side. We don’t expect that to be a problem. The office is in a secluded corner.
In summary, you have convinced me/us that a visit to an architect is probably unavoidable if we want to get a perfect floor plan for our plot. I wrote that to 11ant last year but didn’t follow through because we wanted to quickly know what our building project would cost.
11ant schrieb:
My overall verdict is: "careless to the core." When it comes to so-called inclusive planning, general contractors act like “quick fixers,” as this thread clearly shows once again. Do yourselves two big favors: go to an architect and be prepared not to do any “pre-work” for them. I see two common misconceptions here: first, that skipping an architect means saving their entire fee; and second, that symmetry guarantees the result will look neat and tidy. Both are about 90% disappointed hopes. The necessary “safety margin” added to room sizes just to make even an unprofessional layout furnishable more than compensates for the supposed savings on fees. However, this extra size does allow freedom to prioritize window placement over symmetry.
My concern with an independent architect is that not every so-called professional necessarily has creativity and logic in abundance. That is why we tried to adopt a proven design (Maxime 710 II on the ground floor and Rötzer Ziegel Stadtvilla 150 on the upper floor), instead of potentially burning a fortune upfront on a floor plan that is completely nonsensical.
ypg schrieb:
The north arrow is actually incorrect. It should be rotated about 45 degrees according to the site plan. West would be the bottom left corner of the house on the plan. From southwest to northwest is the nice evening sun in summer. This benefits the guest toilet as well as the upstairs bathroom, and incidentally the guest room or office, not the main living areas. The office/home office really doesn’t need intense sunlight. The children’s rooms are well oriented, as is the utility room… you just have to know what you want. It wouldn’t be my choice.
Correct, the floor plan is not aligned properly and needs to be rotated about 45 degrees so that the lower corner of the entrance side faces west. Regarding the rooms, our thinking was: utility room and master bedroom do not need any sun. We only sleep in our bedroom. There is no TV or anything else there. The rest of the day is spent in the other rooms. For the offices, I do like being able to look out at the street during my home office time, to see who comes home, if the mail carrier rings the door, etc. Just looking out onto the field to the east is a bit boring.
ypg schrieb:
So you’re probably planning to position the house closer to the front. In that case, I would avoid having the family bathroom facing the street. If you swap kitchen and living area, the bathroom would be above the living room… that’s possible; however, I would prefer the soil pipe in a less conspicuous position. Possibly also with a laundry chute directly to the utility room, though not necessarily with a staircase.
Family bathroom facing the street? We are planning the terrace on the south side. Southwest didn’t occur to us since that side faces the street. That’s why the house is set forward. I agree with you that we are sacrificing quite a bit of space on a nice side of the plot.
ypg schrieb:
Has the reason for positioning the house forward been discussed? I would create a nice southwest garden and move kitchen/dining to that area, with the living room in the more private northern zone.
I will discuss this again with my wife. The fence on the street side can only be 1 meter high. Therefore, we initially decided to place the terrace only on the south side.
And many thanks for your idea in the next post. The ground floor strongly reminds me of the Fingerhaus Juno 500 / 501. We actually considered it but decided against that floor plan. Everything feels a bit convoluted, so I would like to see the plan in real life, but there is no show home available. Also, the guest toilet is not directly at the entrance. If the kids come home completely dirty, they would have to run through half the house first. Your suggestion is better in that respect, with the guest toilet in front of the living room. I really like the living/dining room and kitchen facing southwest. I’m still unsure about the upper floor with the children’s corridor. Doesn’t that waste quite a bit of space? The rooms could just as well be a bit larger, even if not absolutely necessary.
hanghaus2023 schrieb:
180 m2 (1,938 sq ft) are hardly achievable with this budget.
I have a quote for the house with the shown dimensions, including plumbing, tiled bathrooms, and tiled utility room, with the remaining walls and floors as self-install—just under €380,000. I consider another €120,000 for the garage, incidental building costs (partially included in the quote), and a kitchen realistic. Even if we completely overhaul our floor plan, the built footprint remains unchanged, so the price won’t change either. Yes, landscaping is not yet included here. And I know the forum opinion differs: the house price per square meter should/can cost €3,000 and well above. That might be true in Munich or Hamburg—but not here. So I won’t respond again to comments like “budget 500k is not enough” or “plan for one million.”
K a t j a schrieb:
Well, the draftsman has copied your design fairly well. Although everything looks careless and uninspired, it’s precisely what you wanted. The corridor is, in my opinion, a bit oversized. I would expect that only starting at 250 m2 (2,690 sq ft). You could gain quite a few square meters there. A 3.44 meter (11 ft 3 in) deep living room is almost ridiculously small for a total of 180 m2 (1,938 sq ft). The artificially extended storage room under the stairs is similar. Get rid of it and lower the wall up to the stair landing. I would remove it entirely and place the coat rack underneath the stairs. The monster kitchen will cost a lot. A bit less would probably do. I would definitely swap the office and bathroom; otherwise, child 2 will be awoken whenever someone showers or uses the toilet.
I already mentioned the too-wide corridor, extended staircase, and narrow living room above—they are all definitely improvable. Swapping office and bathroom: in our apartment, the bathroom adjoins the bedroom. That has never bothered us. Here, only the bathtub is next to the children’s room; toilet and shower are on the other side. We don’t expect that to be a problem. The office is in a secluded corner.
In summary, you have convinced me/us that a visit to an architect is probably unavoidable if we want to get a perfect floor plan for our plot. I wrote that to 11ant last year but didn’t follow through because we wanted to quickly know what our building project would cost.
dimba234 schrieb:
The blunt honesty here is actually quite refreshing. [...] My concern with an independent architect is that not every great professional is necessarily blessed with creativity and logic. That’s why we tried to adopt a proven design (Maxime 710 II on the ground floor and Rötzer Brick City Villa 150 on the upper floor) without potentially wasting huge amounts on a floor plan that is completely nonsensical. The combination of a Rötzer City Villa 150 on top with a Maxime 710 II on the bottom (as sources of inspiration) is, exceptionally, not entirely nonsensical since they are somewhat compatible, but otherwise you are certainly earning yourself more provocations of further blunt honesty. By the way, a Finger Juno 500/501 would be a "one-and-a-half-story house" (albeit with a generous knee wall) and thus another type of design that would have no place in a wind orchestra.
Regarding independent architects, you are doubly protected: you know this forum community, and in the form of myself you also have a building consultant who professionally helps to distinguish the true professionals from the amateurs.
dimba234 schrieb:
Overall, you have convinced me / us that the path to an architect is probably unavoidable, so hopefully we will get a perfect floor plan for our plot. I wrote this to 11ant last year, but I didn’t stick to it because we wanted to know quickly what the construction project would cost us. Help refresh my memory, I don’t recall a direct message (?), only the note here that you planned to build in about a year (which I commented on; currently, the only thing preventing a “rush” on your part is the waiting times for delivery dates and available time slots). Prices will still increase by then, yes—but not more than the excess you can still cut from the floor plan you recently showed.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
11ant schrieb:
By the way, a Finger Juno 500/501 would be considered a one-and-a-half-story house (although with a generous knee wall) and therefore again a violinist who would have no place in a wind orchestra. For exactly this reason, I contacted a Fingerhaus sales representative. A hip roof is possible with the Junos – of course for a hefty extra charge of €27,500 (approximately $27,500) (€25,000 (about $25,000) for the hip roof, €2,500 (about $2,500) for the architect’s modification).
11ant schrieb:
Help my memory here, I don’t recall a direct message (?), only the note here that you wanted to build in a year (which I commented on, currently the waiting times for delivery dates and available slots are the only things reliably preventing you from starting too soon). Prices will rise by then, yes – but not more than the savings you still have in the recently shared design. That was indeed the plan. Ultimately, my fears about further cost and interest rate increases, the new prospect of a KfW funding program, and my parental leave starting in January motivated me to inquire with several house builders. AND if everything goes well, to start construction in late summer. Based on the feedback so far, that should not be a problem. Fingerhaus is the exception – they are fully booked until the middle of next year.
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