ᐅ Floor Plan Single-Family Home, 1.5 Stories

For a dining area, 60cm (24 inches) per person is calculated. For 12 people, a dining table of 3x1 m (10x3 ft) is planned with a space requirement of 5x3 m (16x10 ft).

Such an important aspect should be considered in the planning.

Design 1
The upper floor looks quite good.
On the ground floor, where do the coats, shoes, and bags go?
The kitchen has many walking paths on the left and right.
I would rather call the area a hallway.
The dining space is very cramped, especially for 12 people.
Overall, it is better compared to design 2.

Design 2
Ground floor
The wardrobe area is tight for 4 people. Large empty space overlooking the sofa.
Dining area is relatively small.
The path for groceries through the kitchen is narrow and long.

What is the purpose of a back kitchen?

Actually, @ypg has already explained everything.

The bench in front of the south-facing window is also a matter of personal taste. On the one hand, benches can be impractical; on the other hand, during summer around midday, you will only be able to eat there with blackout blinds, otherwise the people sitting on the bench will get sunburned on the neck, and those sitting opposite will have to squint to avoid being blinded.

People often imagine this romantically, but in everyday life it’s impractical.

Also, your kitchen island or breakfast bar appears in every design. No one will sit there if the dining table is only about one meter (3 feet) away. It’s purely a design element that takes up a lot of space... and the distance between the kitchen island and the sink is too large as well. That causes a lot of unnecessary walking around.

Mathis.aenni schrieb:

cost-efficient planning was communicated,

That’s always good. I also prefer efficient solutions. Whether you can still call nearly 175–180 m² (1885–1937 sq ft) efficient is questionable.

Mathis.aenni schrieb:

Space requirements on ground floor and upper floor: 150–160 m² (1615–1722 sq ft)

That is usually manageable, including an office on the ground floor. However, the backup kitchen and office share the space. The kitchen in design 2 is already quite large, so a backup kitchen isn’t really needed unless you spend a lot of time cooking. If there is a backup kitchen, it should also accommodate the washer and dryer.

Design 1
If you look more closely at the dimensions of 9 x 11.95 meters (29.5 x 39.2 feet) and consider the staircase and its position, you realize that upstairs you get two wide zones. These can be divided well, each being just over 4 meters (13 feet) wide, but the overall width of the house again hinders efficient use of space. The staircase doesn’t extend deeply into the house, resulting in rooms that are longer than necessary.

And when you first consider which areas you might want to use downstairs—there was also talk about a passive house—I think more of a window front facing southwest, some windows southeast, the entrance northeast, and combining that with the desire for a terrace leading to the garden.

Mathis.aenni schrieb:

Music/stereo wall: home cinema (planned are floor-standing speakers on the wall and surround speakers in the ceiling behind the couch)

If you plan something like this for a household of four people, you should avoid trying to fill the entire room with sound; a home cinema should also have walls behind it to contain the sound.

Mathis.aenni schrieb:

Focus is on a large kitchen with a walk-in back kitchen and a generally spacious living and dining area,

This “think big” approach contradicts the initially mentioned statement.

Hello,

I don’t think the planner is the problem. Instead, it seems to be trendy wishes that conflict with the budget and the size of the house.

• The house is too small for a walk-in closet
• The bathroom is too small for a freestanding bathtub
• The house is too small for a backup kitchen
• The house is too small for a kitchen island
• The house is too small for a generous open-plan living and dining area (which I understand to mean 80 m2 (860 sq ft) or more for kitchen, dining, and living)

All these special features come at the expense of children’s space and overall usability. I recommend looking at various prefab house floor plans, as they tend to be very efficient in terms of space utilization.

Best regards

Well, a kitchen island is possible with a 60m² (645ft²) living room, just not a very large one.

A pantry and backup kitchen...? You don’t really need that, even if 12 people regularly dine there. A large cooktop, 2 ovens. A layperson can’t handle much more anyway.

I am commenting directly on Design 2:

- I don’t like the room proportions on the ground floor.
-> The utility room is very narrow. Although everything will fit, there is not enough usable space, for example, to dry laundry or iron. I like the idea of integrating the staircase into that area. However, I wonder how the technical equipment will be arranged there. I would draw it to scale to see if it works. I fear the room will end up feeling very narrow and corridor-like.
-> The bathroom on the ground floor is designed efficiently. For the window, I would recommend a higher sill.
-> There are too many floor-to-ceiling windows in the open-plan room for my taste.
-> The kitchen counter is too close to the dining table.
-> A staircase in the open-plan room creates a lot of visual clutter.
-> I’m not sure how well the concept with the (hidden?) pantry works here. I imagine it could be complicated in daily use.

- On the upper floor, some things seem a bit awkwardly arranged:
-> The dressing room takes up a lot of space for a relatively small amount of wardrobe. I’m not completely happy with that. (Just my personal opinion.)
-> Child 2’s room has a less favorable shape compared to Child 1’s.
-> I don’t like the door positions in both rooms. Especially in children’s rooms, it is worthwhile to leave some space behind the door for wardrobes, bookshelves, etc., which currently is not possible in Child 2’s room.
-> The bedroom could probably be made slightly narrower without losing comfort. The office could move there and thus help Child 2 a bit.
-> I’m very ambivalent about the bathroom. Somehow I like it, but: The toilet area will be extremely dark, as will the shower. Although this style of bathtub is a visual highlight, it is very difficult to clean around; it’s not sufficient here because there is not enough space around it (a freestanding bathtub needs room around it to be cleaned properly). Also, floor-to-ceiling elements in the bathroom always pose a risk of “pleated blinds forever.” You should only use them if there is suitable external privacy protection.
- Children’s rooms should generally not have floor-to-ceiling windows, especially in relatively small rooms. Again: “pleated blinds forever.” Something will quickly end up blocking them anyway.

Additionally: On the side of the house facing the carport, there is not a single window.

Rübe1 schrieb:

"15 kWh/(m²a) as well as a total demand for ‘Renewable Primary Energy’ maximum 60 kWh/(m²a)"
is already ridiculous.

I took a look at our energy certificate for the construction start notification: 10.9 kWh/(m²a) energy demand and 19.6 kWh/(m²a) primary energy demand. This is with an air-to-water heat pump, and we didn’t really focus on energy efficiency (we’re only building to KFW 55 standard, but with photovoltaics).

With a geothermal heat pump, you should easily stay below that.

Still, I agree: I consider a geothermal heat pump completely overkill here.