ᐅ Is a 193 sqm urban villa with a north-facing orientation practical?
Created on: 30 Nov 2020 18:52
R
RotesDach
Dear house building forum,
Since we (2 adults, 2 adults) have often been able to gather helpful tips here as readers, we would like to introduce our house construction plan (town villa, 193 sqm (2077 sqft)) because we are interested in your opinion. This is our first (and only) time building a house. There is certainly a chance that some of you might find something you would do differently for objective or subjective reasons.
Our main questions and considerations relate to the following points:
--> Would you dimension the house differently (for example, plan it longer or wider)?
--> Would you position the garden, terrace, driveway, garage, and entrance differently to achieve more of a south or west orientation?
Or is there simply no way to get more out of this plot, and we have to live with the north orientation? We look forward to hearing about your experiences.
Thank you very much for your feedback!
Since we (2 adults, 2 adults) have often been able to gather helpful tips here as readers, we would like to introduce our house construction plan (town villa, 193 sqm (2077 sqft)) because we are interested in your opinion. This is our first (and only) time building a house. There is certainly a chance that some of you might find something you would do differently for objective or subjective reasons.
Our main questions and considerations relate to the following points:
- The plot of land (509 sqm (5482 sqft)) faces north, meaning the road is to the south (road width 19 m (62 feet), depth: 25–27 m (82–89 feet)). We are unsure to what extent our current north-facing design of the open-plan living area and terrace
- a) (despite very large windows) provides enough light inside the house. The windows are 2.50 m (8 feet) high and 2 m (6.5 feet) wide. The relatively generous ceiling height of 2.87 m (9.4 feet) is also important to us in order to create a sense of spaciousness and airiness.
- b) offers us an outdoor space that is not exclusively dark and shady. Therefore, we have planned a second smaller (side) terrace on the south side. I would also like to create some raised beds for vegetables and hope this will help us make the best use of the shady plot. Unfortunately, there is not much space for planting on the east side either.
- We find the open-plan living area generous in terms of square meters, but we also fear that 10 m (33 feet) in length might be a bit tight. We need and want a large open kitchen as well as a very large dining table (1.60 m x 1.60 m (5.25 ft x 5.25 ft), extendable to 2.50 m (8.2 ft)), hence the width of 5.50 m (18 feet) in the open-plan area.
- Is the hallway wide enough? This is often where things pile up when the family is getting ready to go out and everyone is putting on jackets and shoes.
- Is the utility room sufficient? It houses the air-to-water heat pump and technical equipment, and it is meant for laundry (dryer, washing machine, laundry baskets, drying racks).
- We are completely satisfied with the upper floor, even though we know many would have arranged it differently.
--> Would you dimension the house differently (for example, plan it longer or wider)?
--> Would you position the garden, terrace, driveway, garage, and entrance differently to achieve more of a south or west orientation?
Or is there simply no way to get more out of this plot, and we have to live with the north orientation? We look forward to hearing about your experiences.
Thank you very much for your feedback!
montessalet1 Dec 2020 11:09There is no cloakroom on the ground floor – you will definitely miss that for a long time.
The bedroom on the upper floor, measuring over 31m2 (330 sq ft), is considerably oversized. As alternatives, the upper floor could a) include an additional room, b) have a larger bathroom, c) have a separate toilet/shower added, or d) feature a terrace instead of living space.
Based on personal experience, you will probably need to make some adjustments to the floor plan. But it will work out.
The bedroom on the upper floor, measuring over 31m2 (330 sq ft), is considerably oversized. As alternatives, the upper floor could a) include an additional room, b) have a larger bathroom, c) have a separate toilet/shower added, or d) feature a terrace instead of living space.
Based on personal experience, you will probably need to make some adjustments to the floor plan. But it will work out.
RotesDach schrieb:
offers us an outdoor living space that is not exclusively dark and shaded. Therefore, we planned a second, smaller (side) terrace on the south side. I would also like to create a few raised beds for vegetables and hope to get the best possible use out of the shady plot. Unfortunately, there isn’t much that can be grown on the east side either.One thing is light in the garden, the other is enough light entering the house. Just because a garden faces north doesn’t mean it’s in the shade. Shade occurs where something blocks the sun, causing no light to reach that area. This applies to the house, yes. The house itself stands in direct sunlight, but not the garden. When the sun is in the west or east, there is also light in the north-facing garden—unless you put a garage in front of it. That’s why most people here recommend placing the garage in the southeast corner so the sun can reach around in the afternoon. The other issue is light inside the house. Large windows on the north side, but also partial windows on the west or a staircase/door with a window front, can brighten the interior.
RotesDach schrieb:
Is the utility room big enough? It houses the air-to-water heat pump and other technical equipment, and it should be used for laundry (dryer, washing machine, laundry baskets, drying rack).No. We have 8.5 sqm (91 sq ft) for our shared utility room / freezer room, and we do laundry in the utility room upstairs. You have almost no storage space at all. I recommend this post: https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/die-liste-die-jeden-bauherren-zu-interessieren-hat.34418/RotesDach schrieb:
Is the hallway wide enough? It’s often where everything piles up when the family is getting ready to go out, with everyone putting on jackets and shoes.The hallway is wide enough, yes. But if you furnish it with shoe cabinets and coat closets, it quickly becomes a bit of a tight squeeze around the furniture. I recommend a large wardrobe cabinet for four people with at least 2 meters (6.5 feet) of clear width.RotesDach schrieb:
We are very satisfied with the upstairs floor plan, even though we know many would probably have arranged it differently.Honestly, I don’t think it’s very good. It seems like the planning was stopped after five minutes. No bedroom needs over 30 sqm (320 sq ft)… the entrance to child’s room 1 adds about 1 sqm (11 sq ft) artificially, and the entrance to child’s room 2 is a makeshift slanted wall. Storage space is lacking.You are planning roughly 200 sqm (2,150 sq ft) and somehow only just manage to fit in a kitchen, a dining table, and a double bed with lots of wardrobe space. I would plan for a utility room upstairs of at least 8 sqm (86 sq ft). You don’t need storage space for sleeping areas.
RotesDach schrieb:
Or is there simply nothing more to get out of this plot? And we have to live with the north orientation. More could be achieved with the house itself if that were desired. You are not forced to accept the flawed house positioning any more than you are required to realize the "substitute villa" concept in King Size. What is the deeper purpose of all those reinforced concrete columns, the frosted window in the guest shower-toilet despite a skylight parapet height, and the, to put it mildly, poorly planned kitchen where the seating area turns into a rather small coffee table? The ballroom-sized bedrooms confirm my impression of a lack of spatial imagination. Much more is possible on all levels—but only after thorough clarification.
RotesDach schrieb:
The architect implemented our requirements. They seem quite, how can I say, “special” and require some explanation so that we don’t misunderstand you and you don’t feel misunderstood by us. We need some clear basis for discussion to understand why it should become such an unusual house. Or is it simply the result of the experiment “let’s arbitrarily pick a minor detail (the roof should be red) and make it priority number one”?
RotesDach schrieb:
Site coverage ratio: 0.6 - floor area ratio: 0.5 Hardly. If the values were just swapped, that would at least be a strong indication against two full storeys.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
11ant schrieb:
Hardly. If the values were just swapped, that would at least be a strong indication against "II" full stories. Typo...
Is this already a detailed construction plan??? 🤨
R
RotesDach1 Dec 2020 15:24Thanks in advance for your opinions. We’re interested in how you perceive our planning. I’ll try to address all points to explain our perspective a little.
A 2–3 m (6.5–10 feet) long wardrobe is planned along the long wall with floorboards.
The dining table is intended to be a 1.60 m (5.25 feet) square table with an extension option. I don’t really consider that small. We want a large dining table with plenty of space in the middle. Personally, I don’t like these narrow 90 cm (35 inches) tables.
Regarding the garage, we had also considered the east side. But from our point of view, two reasons speak against it: 1. On the east side, right in our driveway next to the street, there is a streetlight pole (expensive to remove). 2. We want the driveway to be as wide as possible, and therefore only the allowed 3 m (10 feet) on the other side of the house. If the garage were placed on the east, the house would have to be shifted further west. At least this way, on the west side of the driveway, we have the possibility to set up a table with a bench to enjoy the last hours of the evening. A fence will be placed at the front. Also, the neighbor’s house and hedge on the west side are very tall (higher than our garage), so we would get even less west-facing sunlight ☹
We understand that the upper floor is not likely to please everyone, but that is exactly what we want. Usable space is always along the long walls with large built-in closets. We find it much easier to divide or separate large rooms later using furniture than to have several small rooms fixed permanently by walls. The “dance floor” is multifunctional, and actually, because a) my wife has a lot of clothes and wants a catwalk, b) there will still be a desk, and c) the master bedroom should also be a private retreat for us without children at times. Every family member should be able to have some privacy. Points a) to c) are not ranked by priority, by the way. But as I said, we know many recommend smaller bedrooms. We simply don’t see this room only as a bedroom.
Then there was the suggestion to swap the staircase with the main entrance. We had considered that version as well, but we preferred a side entrance so that the children wouldn’t be directly on the street when leaving the door. We have planned a gate in front of the driveway.
@haydee: I think you mixed up the cardinal directions.
@Alessandro: Guest bathroom without natural light…?
From some feedback, I gather that my concern about the terrace being only shaded is not necessarily shared. The other issue is whether the open-plan living space might become too dark. That’s why we decided on four very large floor-to-ceiling windows on the north side (hence, by the way, the concrete supports for structural reasons; the masonry has to be supported somehow). I just hope this lets in enough light. But is that really so? What do you think?
@ant11: I don’t quite understand, what do you mean by “suburban villa”? How exactly would you get more out of the house? What is your argument against a long kitchen countertop (we need plenty of storage space there because the utility room is small and there is no basement) with a large cooking island?
Now it’s become quite long, sorry. But I wanted to address all your comments and explain how we arrived at these decisions.
A 2–3 m (6.5–10 feet) long wardrobe is planned along the long wall with floorboards.
The dining table is intended to be a 1.60 m (5.25 feet) square table with an extension option. I don’t really consider that small. We want a large dining table with plenty of space in the middle. Personally, I don’t like these narrow 90 cm (35 inches) tables.
Regarding the garage, we had also considered the east side. But from our point of view, two reasons speak against it: 1. On the east side, right in our driveway next to the street, there is a streetlight pole (expensive to remove). 2. We want the driveway to be as wide as possible, and therefore only the allowed 3 m (10 feet) on the other side of the house. If the garage were placed on the east, the house would have to be shifted further west. At least this way, on the west side of the driveway, we have the possibility to set up a table with a bench to enjoy the last hours of the evening. A fence will be placed at the front. Also, the neighbor’s house and hedge on the west side are very tall (higher than our garage), so we would get even less west-facing sunlight ☹
We understand that the upper floor is not likely to please everyone, but that is exactly what we want. Usable space is always along the long walls with large built-in closets. We find it much easier to divide or separate large rooms later using furniture than to have several small rooms fixed permanently by walls. The “dance floor” is multifunctional, and actually, because a) my wife has a lot of clothes and wants a catwalk, b) there will still be a desk, and c) the master bedroom should also be a private retreat for us without children at times. Every family member should be able to have some privacy. Points a) to c) are not ranked by priority, by the way. But as I said, we know many recommend smaller bedrooms. We simply don’t see this room only as a bedroom.
Then there was the suggestion to swap the staircase with the main entrance. We had considered that version as well, but we preferred a side entrance so that the children wouldn’t be directly on the street when leaving the door. We have planned a gate in front of the driveway.
@haydee: I think you mixed up the cardinal directions.
@Alessandro: Guest bathroom without natural light…?
From some feedback, I gather that my concern about the terrace being only shaded is not necessarily shared. The other issue is whether the open-plan living space might become too dark. That’s why we decided on four very large floor-to-ceiling windows on the north side (hence, by the way, the concrete supports for structural reasons; the masonry has to be supported somehow). I just hope this lets in enough light. But is that really so? What do you think?
@ant11: I don’t quite understand, what do you mean by “suburban villa”? How exactly would you get more out of the house? What is your argument against a long kitchen countertop (we need plenty of storage space there because the utility room is small and there is no basement) with a large cooking island?
Now it’s become quite long, sorry. But I wanted to address all your comments and explain how we arrived at these decisions.
Did I overlook something, or is there a specific reason why the house must be oriented exactly like that? Why does the terrace have to be on the north side? Why does the garage need to be set back so far and can’t be closer to the street? Our neighbor across the street has a beautiful terrace and a large garden on the south side, even though the driveway is on the side of the property. There would be many other options unless this is explicitly required.
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