Hello everyone,
We last discussed our latest design in this thread. Since a friend of ours recently started working independently as an architect, we switched to her. She basically adopted the old design with minor changes, which we would like to put up for discussion again here.
Checklist:
Development plan/restrictions
Plot size including hinterland/former agricultural land (already cleared greenhouses) total 2800 sqm (30,139 sq ft)
Slope: the front 32m (105 ft) wide plot slopes down 1.60 m (5 ft) from left to right. The land also slopes slightly towards the back, within the 15 m (49 ft) deep building area the terrain drops about 60-80 cm (2-2.6 ft). The plot is the lowest in the street.
Site coverage ratio 0.4
Floor area ratio 0.8
Building area, building line, and boundary: shown in the processed development plan excerpt, approximate planned building outlines marked in red. The entire orange area including the white-marked "path" on the right edge of the lot belongs to us. Below this path is a public wastewater pipe that must not be built over. We need to keep 2 meters (6.5 ft) distance from this path when building the house or 1 meter (3.3 ft) if a garage is placed there. Therefore, attaching the garage on the right side makes little sense. The house would then shift much further to the left and our terrace would be more often in the shadow of the left (southwest) neighboring building. The development plan for the hinterland buildings was approved at our request (for potential future use, e.g., a bungalow for children or elderly). As long as we don’t build in the back, we can use the path area ourselves; it is currently planned as a parking space for cars if we want to park close to the house or for guests.
Bordering buildings: on the left (southwest) a bungalow, which due to its higher elevation can cast significant shadows in winter. Behind this bungalow on our plot boundary are a garage and further back a shed not included in the development plan, both causing shading when the sun is low. On the right (northeast), there is a 1.5-story building with a garage bordering our path.
Building height: 2 full floors
Preferred roof type: classic shapes (a visible roof structure is planned above the upper floor)
Style: flexible
Garden orientation Northwest
Client requirements
Style, roof shape, building type: preferably classic "traditionally cozy," possibly somewhat ornate and combined with modern elements
Number of occupants, ages: 4 people (43 + 43 + 3 + 1 years); third child/foster child unlikely but you never know
Home office: for personal documents, books, etc.
Annual guest stays: max. 10 nights per year so far
Open or closed architecture: preferably open
Conservative or modern construction: both have pros and cons, a mix is welcome
Open kitchen, kitchen island: due to noise from cooking, dishwasher, and open airspace towards the bedrooms, we want to be able to close the kitchen; a kitchen island is welcome if space allows but not mandatory
Number of dining seats: typically 4, up to 12-18 with guests
Fireplace: no
Music/speaker wall: not required, a small stereo system with two compact speakers will fit somewhere
Balcony, roof terrace: omitted for cost reasons
Garage, carport: at least one double garage
Additional wishes/particulars/daily routines, including reasons for or against certain features: see below
House design
Planner:
- Architect’s drawing based on our own draft
- Estimated price by architect/planner: unknown so far
Personal budget for house including equipment: 500,000-600,000 € (plus ancillary costs)
Preferred heating technology: geothermal heat pump, deep drilling
Why our own floor plan rather than a complete architect design? Apparently easier for the architect and she probably knows I can be stubborn.
We positioned the house “angled” in the building area so it runs parallel to the right boundary. This way we get a better view from the southwest terrace into the northwest garden and less visibility from the street and opposite neighbor houses. Another reason is to build as far away as possible from our higher left neighbor (whose shadow from low winter sun can be long) to get more sunlight in our windows and on the terrace. For brightness reasons, I also planned the garage separately from the house on the left southwest edge; it should be built as low and flat as possible, so it doesn’t cause significantly more shadow in winter than the neighbor’s buildings already do.
By the way, the open airspace above is a long-standing wish we don't want to give up completely, even if this means needing well soundproofed doors to the children’s rooms, for example.
Now to my questions:
- The corner urinal in the guest WC was drawn rather space-consuming; there might be more compact constructions available. Still, the area is somewhat tight. Does anyone have better suggestions for the layout including the urinal?
- For the children’s bedrooms, I am considering giving the side windows double width for better daylight. With the visible roof beams, these will be large rooms, so a bit more window area might be good?
- In the parents' dressing room, the wardrobes are separated by solid walls even in the passage area. Should I remove these walls for more freedom of movement and flexibility? Then you’d see the wardrobe side walls when entering, but as long as no custom-made wardrobes are installed, this would give more options for furnishing?
- We plan to place a family bed 270 cm (106 inches) wide in the master bedroom in the early years. According to the plan, only 49 cm (19 inches) of space remains on each side. Does anyone have ideas on how this could be improved? Should we reduce some space from the open airspace? Or have a larger bedroom that extends beyond the ground floor walls?
- Is the kitchen layout practical? To have plenty of workspace and storage, we mainly want to install base cabinets and wall cabinets.
- Are there other visible errors or suggestions for improvements?
Thanks in advance for all your feedback!
We last discussed our latest design in this thread. Since a friend of ours recently started working independently as an architect, we switched to her. She basically adopted the old design with minor changes, which we would like to put up for discussion again here.
Checklist:
Development plan/restrictions
Plot size including hinterland/former agricultural land (already cleared greenhouses) total 2800 sqm (30,139 sq ft)
Slope: the front 32m (105 ft) wide plot slopes down 1.60 m (5 ft) from left to right. The land also slopes slightly towards the back, within the 15 m (49 ft) deep building area the terrain drops about 60-80 cm (2-2.6 ft). The plot is the lowest in the street.
Site coverage ratio 0.4
Floor area ratio 0.8
Building area, building line, and boundary: shown in the processed development plan excerpt, approximate planned building outlines marked in red. The entire orange area including the white-marked "path" on the right edge of the lot belongs to us. Below this path is a public wastewater pipe that must not be built over. We need to keep 2 meters (6.5 ft) distance from this path when building the house or 1 meter (3.3 ft) if a garage is placed there. Therefore, attaching the garage on the right side makes little sense. The house would then shift much further to the left and our terrace would be more often in the shadow of the left (southwest) neighboring building. The development plan for the hinterland buildings was approved at our request (for potential future use, e.g., a bungalow for children or elderly). As long as we don’t build in the back, we can use the path area ourselves; it is currently planned as a parking space for cars if we want to park close to the house or for guests.
Bordering buildings: on the left (southwest) a bungalow, which due to its higher elevation can cast significant shadows in winter. Behind this bungalow on our plot boundary are a garage and further back a shed not included in the development plan, both causing shading when the sun is low. On the right (northeast), there is a 1.5-story building with a garage bordering our path.
Building height: 2 full floors
Preferred roof type: classic shapes (a visible roof structure is planned above the upper floor)
Style: flexible
Garden orientation Northwest
Client requirements
Style, roof shape, building type: preferably classic "traditionally cozy," possibly somewhat ornate and combined with modern elements
Number of occupants, ages: 4 people (43 + 43 + 3 + 1 years); third child/foster child unlikely but you never know
Home office: for personal documents, books, etc.
Annual guest stays: max. 10 nights per year so far
Open or closed architecture: preferably open
Conservative or modern construction: both have pros and cons, a mix is welcome
Open kitchen, kitchen island: due to noise from cooking, dishwasher, and open airspace towards the bedrooms, we want to be able to close the kitchen; a kitchen island is welcome if space allows but not mandatory
Number of dining seats: typically 4, up to 12-18 with guests
Fireplace: no
Music/speaker wall: not required, a small stereo system with two compact speakers will fit somewhere
Balcony, roof terrace: omitted for cost reasons
Garage, carport: at least one double garage
Additional wishes/particulars/daily routines, including reasons for or against certain features: see below
House design
Planner:
- Architect’s drawing based on our own draft
- Estimated price by architect/planner: unknown so far
Personal budget for house including equipment: 500,000-600,000 € (plus ancillary costs)
Preferred heating technology: geothermal heat pump, deep drilling
Why our own floor plan rather than a complete architect design? Apparently easier for the architect and she probably knows I can be stubborn.
We positioned the house “angled” in the building area so it runs parallel to the right boundary. This way we get a better view from the southwest terrace into the northwest garden and less visibility from the street and opposite neighbor houses. Another reason is to build as far away as possible from our higher left neighbor (whose shadow from low winter sun can be long) to get more sunlight in our windows and on the terrace. For brightness reasons, I also planned the garage separately from the house on the left southwest edge; it should be built as low and flat as possible, so it doesn’t cause significantly more shadow in winter than the neighbor’s buildings already do.
By the way, the open airspace above is a long-standing wish we don't want to give up completely, even if this means needing well soundproofed doors to the children’s rooms, for example.
Now to my questions:
- The corner urinal in the guest WC was drawn rather space-consuming; there might be more compact constructions available. Still, the area is somewhat tight. Does anyone have better suggestions for the layout including the urinal?
- For the children’s bedrooms, I am considering giving the side windows double width for better daylight. With the visible roof beams, these will be large rooms, so a bit more window area might be good?
- In the parents' dressing room, the wardrobes are separated by solid walls even in the passage area. Should I remove these walls for more freedom of movement and flexibility? Then you’d see the wardrobe side walls when entering, but as long as no custom-made wardrobes are installed, this would give more options for furnishing?
- We plan to place a family bed 270 cm (106 inches) wide in the master bedroom in the early years. According to the plan, only 49 cm (19 inches) of space remains on each side. Does anyone have ideas on how this could be improved? Should we reduce some space from the open airspace? Or have a larger bedroom that extends beyond the ground floor walls?
- Is the kitchen layout practical? To have plenty of workspace and storage, we mainly want to install base cabinets and wall cabinets.
- Are there other visible errors or suggestions for improvements?
Thanks in advance for all your feedback!
M
Matthew034 Dec 2020 09:1511ant schrieb:
from KatjaSorry for hijacking... but I just noticed this yesterday, and since you are like a walking encyclopedia, you might know: What about Katja? She hasn’t been here since June 😳
Katja received a warning for using an inappropriate word while commenting on the size of a child’s room, was then reprimanded again for it, argued about the issue, and was subsequently banned. Her loss of interest in contributing to this forum could have been anticipated. A prospective builder of a 140 sqm (1,507 sq ft) bungalow in Brandenburg had also pointed out official information about a federal funding program (without linking it), which led to a similar outcome. Meanwhile, our surveyor has had enough as well and wrote elsewhere: “... I have stopped my activities there because a thread was deleted repeatedly without any understandable reason or explanation, and discussing it with admins or moderators is not possible.” Well, respectful treatment of key contributors is clearly not something everyone is capable of. I myself have Asperger’s, but apparently with a higher level of adaptability :-)
But everything except sausage comes to an end. A few weeks ago, I used a combination of several official formatting options (bold and color) in a complex post for clarity and was warned as if I had used tricks to achieve it. We’ll see how much longer I’ll stay here. I don’t want to go into it any further; my contact via regular email is well known by now ;-)
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
But everything except sausage comes to an end. A few weeks ago, I used a combination of several official formatting options (bold and color) in a complex post for clarity and was warned as if I had used tricks to achieve it. We’ll see how much longer I’ll stay here. I don’t want to go into it any further; my contact via regular email is well known by now ;-)
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
Your questions have not been answered yet:
The children’s rooms should already have enough window area... increasing it would negatively affect the appearance.
Leave it as is. The sofa will always fit well, and the window will never be in the way.
Leave them out.
How long do you typically have such a family bed? I hope the bed will become narrower again once the kids reach school age. So, this is only a temporary solution that you will probably manage given your age.
It is not furnished—the kitchen layout only shows preliminary architect placeholders.
Where? Have you already registered in the kitchen forum? Have you visited a kitchen planner yet?
ltenzer schrieb:
In the children’s bedrooms, I am considering giving the side windows double the width for better natural light. Because of the exposed roof truss, these rooms have large volumes, so a bit more window area might be beneficial?
The children’s rooms should already have enough window area... increasing it would negatively affect the appearance.
ltenzer schrieb:
I would prefer the living room window above the couch to be slightly further to the left, so the couch can be moved more flexibly. Also, I think it would look better if the wall width to the right of the window roughly matches the depth of the sofa, creating a somewhat private seating area.
Leave it as is. The sofa will always fit well, and the window will never be in the way.
ltenzer schrieb:
Should I rather leave these out to allow more movement space and flexibility?
Leave them out.
ltenzer schrieb:
According to the plan, there would only be 49 cm (19 inches) of space on each side.
How long do you typically have such a family bed? I hope the bed will become narrower again once the kids reach school age. So, this is only a temporary solution that you will probably manage given your age.
ltenzer schrieb:
Is the kitchen furnished reasonably?
It is not furnished—the kitchen layout only shows preliminary architect placeholders.
ltenzer schrieb:
Wall cabinets
Where? Have you already registered in the kitchen forum? Have you visited a kitchen planner yet?
ltenzer schrieb:
Personal budget limit for the house, including fittings: 500,000-600,000 € including additional costsIf the original poster is still following this thread: I believe this is significantly too low to realize the design shown here. Starting from 700,000 € seems feasible with modest expectations.