ᐅ Single-family house floor plan, slight hillside location, northwest orientation
Created on: 23 May 2025 18:30
K
kronos215
Hello everyone,
We have almost finalized our planning with the architect and would appreciate you taking a critical look at the floor plan. Afterwards, we plan to proceed with the tendering process.
We generally like the ground floor (GF) very much. However, we are considering flipping the house and making some changes to the upper floor (UF). The garage, utility room, and technical room would move to the right, and the entire house would be shifted closer to the neighbor’s hedge on the left side (3m (10 feet) distance). The living room would then be on the left. It’s unclear whether the view of the neighbor’s hedge at a 3m (10 feet) distance will be nicer. On the positive side, the house would be better oriented towards the south and would let in more sunlight. The kitchen would then be on the right, providing wind protection from the open field while still allowing sunlight to reach the terrace.
Corner plot, one neighbor on the left, fields to the back and right
Ground floor area: 99m2 (without terrace), garage 30m2
Upper floor area: 78m2 (from 1.5m (5 feet))
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size
approx. 750m2
Slope
Yes, uphill on the mountain side. There is a manhole cover on the street in front of the plot and one behind it. The elevation difference between the covers is about 3m. The plot initially rises about 1m (3 feet) above the sidewalk and
Edge development
Yes, it’s a corner plot. There is a neighbor on the left side. Behind the house and to the right is a field path and fields.
Number of parking spaces
The adjacent street should provide sufficient parking spaces. A garage is also planned.
Number of stories
According to the development plan, 1.5-story houses are permitted.
Roof type
According to the development plan, only gable roofs are allowed.
Orientation
Northwest
Maximum heights / limits
According to the development plan, the house must be built exactly in this alignment
Requirements of the homeowners
Style, roof shape, building type
Country house style, gable roof (eaves facing the street), single-family home
Basement, number of floors
A basement was initially planned but was dropped due to budget. 1.5 floors are allowed and planned as per the development plan.
Number of occupants, age
Two adults, early 30s, no children yet but a child’s room is planned
Space requirements on GF, UF
GF: Garage, entrance hall, office 1, kitchen, living room, dining room, pantry, technical room, utility room, guest bathroom with shower
UF: Bedroom, child’s room, office 2, bathroom, storage room (planned due to no basement)
Office: family use or home office?
Both offices are currently needed for work.
Overnight guests per year
Very rarely or none
According to the development plan, 1.5-story houses are allowed
Somewhat open
Conservative or modern construction
Modern (?)
Open kitchen, cooking island
Open kitchen planned, cooking island desired but dropped due to space constraints
Number of dining seats
6, preferably expandable to 10
Fireplace
Desired and planned as a partition between dining and living room
Music / stereo wall
Desired; a niche in the living room works well for this
Balcony, roof terrace
Desired but dropped for budget reasons
Garage, carport
Planned; it is questionable whether the garage should instead be located on the right to avoid blocking the south side.
House design
Who is responsible for the design?
Architect
What do you particularly like? Why?
The open living and dining area. The open view of the fields.
The dormer on the upper floor.
What do you dislike? Why?
The corridor on the upper floor feels dark. Many skylights are planned (knee wall 80cm (31 inches) per development plan, gable roof with eaves facing the street).
The ground floor might also be dark. The garage is located on the south side. The windows facing the fields are towards the northeast.
Skylights block the option for photovoltaic panels and the attic space.
The storage room feels out of place.
Since a basement was initially planned, a hobby room was also considered, but this has been dropped.
The master bed is directly adjacent to the child’s room, but the bedroom must remain there.
Price estimate according to architect:
€540,000 (we find this optimistic; we expect higher costs and would thus like to make the floor plan more compact)
Personal price limit for house including fixtures and fittings:
€550,000 (all-in)
Preferred heating technology:
Heat pump
If you had to give up something, which details / expansions
-you could give up: a two-story open space was planned but removed, storage room on the upper floor (is it really necessary?), the GF could generally be smaller to save costs
-you cannot give up: large windows on the GF, open living-dining area, access to the house via garage and utility room, fireplace, pantry
Why has the design turned out this way?E.g.
Which wishes were implemented by the architect? The architect implemented the room concept well and incorporated many of his own ideas that we mostly find coherent.
What do you consider particularly good or bad about it? We like the ground floor very much; there is still potential for changes on the upper floor. We would also like another dormer above the entrance door, but this does not seem possible due to the development plan (the upper floor would become a full story if too much area is covered by dormers). The study could then be where the storage room currently is. The storage room could become a combined storage and hobby room.
We are grateful for any input and suggestions. We are particularly concerned about the south orientation. We do not want the rooms to become too dark.
We have almost finalized our planning with the architect and would appreciate you taking a critical look at the floor plan. Afterwards, we plan to proceed with the tendering process.
We generally like the ground floor (GF) very much. However, we are considering flipping the house and making some changes to the upper floor (UF). The garage, utility room, and technical room would move to the right, and the entire house would be shifted closer to the neighbor’s hedge on the left side (3m (10 feet) distance). The living room would then be on the left. It’s unclear whether the view of the neighbor’s hedge at a 3m (10 feet) distance will be nicer. On the positive side, the house would be better oriented towards the south and would let in more sunlight. The kitchen would then be on the right, providing wind protection from the open field while still allowing sunlight to reach the terrace.
Corner plot, one neighbor on the left, fields to the back and right
Ground floor area: 99m2 (without terrace), garage 30m2
Upper floor area: 78m2 (from 1.5m (5 feet))
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size
approx. 750m2
Slope
Yes, uphill on the mountain side. There is a manhole cover on the street in front of the plot and one behind it. The elevation difference between the covers is about 3m. The plot initially rises about 1m (3 feet) above the sidewalk and
Edge development
Yes, it’s a corner plot. There is a neighbor on the left side. Behind the house and to the right is a field path and fields.
Number of parking spaces
The adjacent street should provide sufficient parking spaces. A garage is also planned.
Number of stories
According to the development plan, 1.5-story houses are permitted.
Roof type
According to the development plan, only gable roofs are allowed.
Orientation
Northwest
Maximum heights / limits
According to the development plan, the house must be built exactly in this alignment
Requirements of the homeowners
Style, roof shape, building type
Country house style, gable roof (eaves facing the street), single-family home
Basement, number of floors
A basement was initially planned but was dropped due to budget. 1.5 floors are allowed and planned as per the development plan.
Number of occupants, age
Two adults, early 30s, no children yet but a child’s room is planned
Space requirements on GF, UF
GF: Garage, entrance hall, office 1, kitchen, living room, dining room, pantry, technical room, utility room, guest bathroom with shower
UF: Bedroom, child’s room, office 2, bathroom, storage room (planned due to no basement)
Office: family use or home office?
Both offices are currently needed for work.
Overnight guests per year
Very rarely or none
According to the development plan, 1.5-story houses are allowed
Somewhat open
Conservative or modern construction
Modern (?)
Open kitchen, cooking island
Open kitchen planned, cooking island desired but dropped due to space constraints
Number of dining seats
6, preferably expandable to 10
Fireplace
Desired and planned as a partition between dining and living room
Music / stereo wall
Desired; a niche in the living room works well for this
Balcony, roof terrace
Desired but dropped for budget reasons
Garage, carport
Planned; it is questionable whether the garage should instead be located on the right to avoid blocking the south side.
House design
Who is responsible for the design?
Architect
What do you particularly like? Why?
The open living and dining area. The open view of the fields.
The dormer on the upper floor.
What do you dislike? Why?
The corridor on the upper floor feels dark. Many skylights are planned (knee wall 80cm (31 inches) per development plan, gable roof with eaves facing the street).
The ground floor might also be dark. The garage is located on the south side. The windows facing the fields are towards the northeast.
Skylights block the option for photovoltaic panels and the attic space.
The storage room feels out of place.
Since a basement was initially planned, a hobby room was also considered, but this has been dropped.
The master bed is directly adjacent to the child’s room, but the bedroom must remain there.
Price estimate according to architect:
€540,000 (we find this optimistic; we expect higher costs and would thus like to make the floor plan more compact)
Personal price limit for house including fixtures and fittings:
€550,000 (all-in)
Preferred heating technology:
Heat pump
If you had to give up something, which details / expansions
-you could give up: a two-story open space was planned but removed, storage room on the upper floor (is it really necessary?), the GF could generally be smaller to save costs
-you cannot give up: large windows on the GF, open living-dining area, access to the house via garage and utility room, fireplace, pantry
Why has the design turned out this way?E.g.
Which wishes were implemented by the architect? The architect implemented the room concept well and incorporated many of his own ideas that we mostly find coherent.
What do you consider particularly good or bad about it? We like the ground floor very much; there is still potential for changes on the upper floor. We would also like another dormer above the entrance door, but this does not seem possible due to the development plan (the upper floor would become a full story if too much area is covered by dormers). The study could then be where the storage room currently is. The storage room could become a combined storage and hobby room.
We are grateful for any input and suggestions. We are particularly concerned about the south orientation. We do not want the rooms to become too dark.
kronos215 schrieb:
taking your input into account It seems to me that you can only incorporate a fraction of the constructive feedback provided here. The progress is actually going backward. The new drawings resemble initial ideas from someone who just purchased a plot but has never worked on designs before—as if the entire nine pages of discussion didn’t exist.
kronos215 schrieb:
the red line (top of the plan) marks the sunset, the orange circle shows the current sun position From O to O means: from October to Easter.
K
kronos21525 May 2025 23:09ypg schrieb:
It seems to me that you can only absorb a fraction of what is being constructively communicated here.Please provide criticism of the floor plan, not the person!kronos215 schrieb:
Please critique the floor plan, not the person!No, this design nor the previous one requires detailed criticism; it should be discarded immediately. It’s a pity that so much good advice was given here, which could have been taken on board. The dependency of the roof slope on the usable living space in the attic was also mentioned.
At least one should grow and develop their understanding of these dependencies from this discussion, whether related to orientation or roof pitch. Instead, the design falls back into a childish pattern. You may not like my answer, but that is how it is.
kronos215 schrieb:
I had some time today and created my own design for a ground floor. Why do you bother starting with the simpler floor first? Deriving the more complex floor from the less complex one is so much more tedious that 2. professionals generally avoid this mistake, and 1. amateurs regularly manage to produce a satisfactory ground floor, then develop it into an even more satisfactory ground floor, and afterwards struggle more and more with each attempt to create a matching upper floor.
kbt09 schrieb:
As you can see from @ypg’s comments about the staircase, the upper floor also always needs to be developed, according to @11ant even before the ground floor. First comes the spatial program for both floors; then, in the plan view, the upper floor takes precedence. This also applies to the staircase, which should be designed first in general and then from the exit point down to the entry point. The exit should be as central as possible and checked for headroom there; going down then happens almost naturally.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
K
kronos21526 May 2025 16:42Since I’m clearly not an architect, I continued looking for inspiration and found a floor plan that meets many, if not all, of our requirements and, I believe, can be very well implemented on this plot. Yes, it’s a house with a basement again, although that was initially dismissed for budget reasons. If the house is built smaller (here 128 sqm (1375 sq ft)), it should appear to fit within our budget at first glance. Additionally, the plot has a height difference of about 3 m (10 ft) from one end to the other. A solution for this would have had to be found anyway.
Why this floor plan?
I actually see many of our wishes reflected in this floor plan and feel that we would have to make few, if any, compromises. The basement raises the entire house and further improves the view. Since the house is already situated on a hill, the basement on the lower side would provide a good outlook over the landscape. The simple geometry (no bay windows) should help keep the project cost-effective.
Why this floor plan?
- The house is somewhat narrower and fits within the building envelope/planning boundary, leaving plenty of space between the neighbor’s hedge and the house
- The straight staircase does not start near the entrance (which we see as a positive)
- The study is located at the top of the plan and has direct access to the garden
- The living room is on the left side of the plan, has direct access to the terrace, and receives a lot of sunlight
- The kitchen has a large cooking island, and the dining area offers a nice view
- The staircase landing faces a window where the morning sun should be visible. The hallway is no longer dark
- The bedroom faces away from the street side and features a dormer allowing a view of the garden
- The two children’s rooms share a dormer; one will be used as a second office. Originally, the office was planned to be at the bottom of the plan to have a good view
I actually see many of our wishes reflected in this floor plan and feel that we would have to make few, if any, compromises. The basement raises the entire house and further improves the view. Since the house is already situated on a hill, the basement on the lower side would provide a good outlook over the landscape. The simple geometry (no bay windows) should help keep the project cost-effective.
What are the exterior dimensions?
And how is the roof supposed to be designed?
And why is the terrace connected to the living room? It is usually more practical to have it accessible from the kitchen.
How is the house positioned on the plot?
How is the 80 cm (31.5 inch) knee wall taken into account? See the rooms on the upper floor.
And how is the roof supposed to be designed?
And why is the terrace connected to the living room? It is usually more practical to have it accessible from the kitchen.
How is the house positioned on the plot?
How is the 80 cm (31.5 inch) knee wall taken into account? See the rooms on the upper floor.
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