Hello everyone,
we have purchased a quite challenging sloped plot and have now received the first draft from our architect. I have personally revised it to address some weaknesses that arose due to my requested changes. The exterior dimensions are relatively fixed. I am fairly satisfied but would appreciate some additional feedback before sending it back to the architect.
Development Plan/Restrictions
Plot size: 731 sqm (7870 sq ft)
Slope: Yes, steep slope; the street runs north down into the valley and the garden is elevated on the mountain to the east
Building envelope, building line and boundaries: 3 m (10 feet) to neighbors/street
Orientation: Garden east, street west
Maximum heights/limits: still uncertain. According to the preliminary building inquiry, about 9.50 m (31 feet) from basement slab
Other requirements: according to § 34
Client Requirements
Style, roof type, building type: Modern, flat roof
Basement, floors: Basement plus 2 full floors
Number of occupants, ages: 4 persons (41 years, 29 years, 3 years, 1 year), possible third child later
Space needs on ground floor: Living-dining-cooking area, storage/pantry, guest WC, office
Space needs on upper floor: Bedroom, dressing room, master bathroom, utility room, 2 children’s bedrooms, children’s bathroom
Space needs in basement: Secondary apartment as office and fitness area, technical room, entrance/wardrobe, storage, technical room, garage
Office: Family use or home office? 2 home office rooms
Overnight guests per year: 2 weeks per year
Open or closed layout: Very open living-dining-kitchen area; rest more closed
Conservative or modern construction: ?
Open kitchen, kitchen island: both desired
Number of dining seats: 8-10
Fireplace: rather no
Music/sound wall: if possible
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: Large garage with double door
Utility garden, greenhouse: no
Additional wishes/special features/daily routine, also reasons why something should or should not be included: very different daily rhythms, husband goes to bed late and sleeps accordingly long. Basement office for undisturbed work.
We would like the garden level to be as high as possible above street level since the plot borders a nice meadow that is currently about 1-2 m (3-6 feet) above garden level. However, the house cannot be set too high because otherwise the garage entrance would become too steep.
House Design
Planner: Architect, with interior adjustments by myself
What do you particularly like? Why? Open, spacious living area, bay window
What do you dislike? Why? Unfavorable cloakroom situation when arriving from the garage. Long dirt zone through which you have to pass to reach the office.
Price estimate by architect: over 1 million
Personal price limit for house, including features: basically already stretched at 1 million, possibly up to 1.1-1.2 million
Preferred heating technology: Heat pump, underfloor heating
If you have to give up something, which details/extensions
- Can you give up: Installation of the basement office as a separate apartment, but desired for tax reasons
- Cannot give up: Basically everything is in some way desired/important
Why does the design look the way it does? For example:
Due to the challenging slope of the plot, many factors are more or less predetermined. There was already an approved building application from another architect, which independently resembles this design closely.
I fell in love with the kitchen bay window in a show home, which unfortunately means the pantry cannot be used as the direct extension of the kitchen as originally planned... Since the kitchen is very large, the room will probably function more as a storage pantry.
On the upper floor, the second children’s bedroom is located in the northwest rather than the southwest because the higher neighbor's house stands directly to the south, and to the north there is a great view of the green valley.
we have purchased a quite challenging sloped plot and have now received the first draft from our architect. I have personally revised it to address some weaknesses that arose due to my requested changes. The exterior dimensions are relatively fixed. I am fairly satisfied but would appreciate some additional feedback before sending it back to the architect.
Development Plan/Restrictions
Plot size: 731 sqm (7870 sq ft)
Slope: Yes, steep slope; the street runs north down into the valley and the garden is elevated on the mountain to the east
Building envelope, building line and boundaries: 3 m (10 feet) to neighbors/street
Orientation: Garden east, street west
Maximum heights/limits: still uncertain. According to the preliminary building inquiry, about 9.50 m (31 feet) from basement slab
Other requirements: according to § 34
Client Requirements
Style, roof type, building type: Modern, flat roof
Basement, floors: Basement plus 2 full floors
Number of occupants, ages: 4 persons (41 years, 29 years, 3 years, 1 year), possible third child later
Space needs on ground floor: Living-dining-cooking area, storage/pantry, guest WC, office
Space needs on upper floor: Bedroom, dressing room, master bathroom, utility room, 2 children’s bedrooms, children’s bathroom
Space needs in basement: Secondary apartment as office and fitness area, technical room, entrance/wardrobe, storage, technical room, garage
Office: Family use or home office? 2 home office rooms
Overnight guests per year: 2 weeks per year
Open or closed layout: Very open living-dining-kitchen area; rest more closed
Conservative or modern construction: ?
Open kitchen, kitchen island: both desired
Number of dining seats: 8-10
Fireplace: rather no
Music/sound wall: if possible
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: Large garage with double door
Utility garden, greenhouse: no
Additional wishes/special features/daily routine, also reasons why something should or should not be included: very different daily rhythms, husband goes to bed late and sleeps accordingly long. Basement office for undisturbed work.
We would like the garden level to be as high as possible above street level since the plot borders a nice meadow that is currently about 1-2 m (3-6 feet) above garden level. However, the house cannot be set too high because otherwise the garage entrance would become too steep.
House Design
Planner: Architect, with interior adjustments by myself
What do you particularly like? Why? Open, spacious living area, bay window
What do you dislike? Why? Unfavorable cloakroom situation when arriving from the garage. Long dirt zone through which you have to pass to reach the office.
Price estimate by architect: over 1 million
Personal price limit for house, including features: basically already stretched at 1 million, possibly up to 1.1-1.2 million
Preferred heating technology: Heat pump, underfloor heating
If you have to give up something, which details/extensions
- Can you give up: Installation of the basement office as a separate apartment, but desired for tax reasons
- Cannot give up: Basically everything is in some way desired/important
Why does the design look the way it does? For example:
Due to the challenging slope of the plot, many factors are more or less predetermined. There was already an approved building application from another architect, which independently resembles this design closely.
I fell in love with the kitchen bay window in a show home, which unfortunately means the pantry cannot be used as the direct extension of the kitchen as originally planned... Since the kitchen is very large, the room will probably function more as a storage pantry.
On the upper floor, the second children’s bedroom is located in the northwest rather than the southwest because the higher neighbor's house stands directly to the south, and to the north there is a great view of the green valley.
H
hanghaus202314 Jan 2025 16:54In my opinion, the floor plan has been worsened instead of improved.
Somehow, the architect's floor plan is larger???
I would be very interested in the details of how this continuous parapet is supposed to work in a solid construction house.
Putting the additional costs aside for a moment. (You can count them as balcony costs: 500 euros/m (160 dollars/ft) * 120 m (394 ft) equals 60,000 euros (72,000 dollars))
They are not cutting corners here.
Slowly, the 1.2 million budget is no longer realistic.
11ant schrieb:
You can’t tell from the design (at least in the version shown here): the drawings show stacked flat-roof bungalows with roof overhangs on each floor slab. Also, there’s a “disintegration” into the plot that practically amounts to topographical violation (penalty: excavator buckets weighed in gold). Exactly, that was a misunderstanding with the architect, who didn’t take this into account in the first draft. That’s why you only see the roof overhangs.
However, I don’t understand how you perceive it as a topographical violation, because I would like to know how you think the plot should be built otherwise… On a slope, you have to excavate. If we just put it on top, we’d need a 4m (13 feet) high ladder to the front door, and the car would have to stay parked on the street.
hanghaus2023 schrieb:
In my opinion, you made the floor plan worse while trying to improve it.
Somehow, the architect’s floor plan looks larger???
I’m curious about the detail of how the continuous parapet is supposed to work on a solid masonry house.
Setting aside the additional costs. (You can count those as balcony costs: 500 euros/m * 120m equals 60k)
There’s no skimping here.
Slowly, the 1.2 million is slipping away.In what way is it worse? My design provides at least 4 square meters (approximately 43 square feet) more living space and no narrow, corridor-like kids’ room accessed through a closet.I left out the roof overhang on the outside because it was hard to represent in the software and, frankly, I don’t want roof overhangs everywhere and on every floor. That was just the architect’s interpretation. By the way, this is absolutely not unusual—my parents’ 1960s Bauhaus-style house has the same.
H
hanghaus202314 Jan 2025 17:16I don’t understand why the design here doesn’t take the slope and the surroundings into account.
H
hanghaus202314 Jan 2025 17:21Skya2020 schrieb:
By the way, it’s definitely not uncommon. My parents have the same thing in their 1960s Bauhaus-style house.That’s how it seemed to me as well. Is your parents’ house also located on a hillside next to relatively small houses?
hanghaus2023 schrieb:
I don’t understand why the planning here doesn’t take the slope and surroundings into account.If you could explain what you mean by that and what it would look like, please. You seem to have at least some idea.Similar topics