ᐅ Floor plan design for an urban villa with a low-pitched roof
Created on: 4 Nov 2022 16:08
M
MiTo2020
Hello everyone,
We are slowly but surely getting a bit frustrated with the floor plan design and could really use some different opinions and ideas.
Here are the most important details:
Attached you will find the latest draft from our potential builder.
It’s a city villa with a flat or low-pitched roof with a maximum slope of 10 degrees and a green roof, which we want to have constructed as a hipped roof.
Due to the building plot’s size restrictions, our house can be a maximum of 8.50 m (28 feet) wide. We aim for 130–135 m² (1,400–1,450 sq ft) of living space.
Ground Floor Requirements:
- Side entrance on the east side with an adjacent carport, possibly also on the south side
- Small entrance hall (currently wasted space)
- Utility room should be at least 9 m² (97 sq ft)
- Staircase preferably as shown or a half-turn staircase (maybe with storage under the stairs)
- Guest bathroom with a shower
- Cloakroom niche
- The kitchen layout should be roughly similar to the floor plan
- The fireplace is unfortunately misplaced—it should actually be where the couch is. According to the builder, this is not possible with this city villa design.
On the north and west sides, we have a nice field next to the property, so we want windows facing those directions.
Upper Floor Requirements:
- Circulation space connecting bedroom, dressing room, and bathroom, with the bathroom also accessible from the hallway
- For the bed, we need at least 3.80 m (12.5 feet) of space, and we have about 6 m (20 feet) of wardrobe (Ikea Pax) that needs to be accommodated
- Home office
- Children’s room
Maybe you have some ideas on how to optimize this floor plan. We are looking forward to your suggestions.
Good luck
M & T
We are slowly but surely getting a bit frustrated with the floor plan design and could really use some different opinions and ideas.
Here are the most important details:
Attached you will find the latest draft from our potential builder.
It’s a city villa with a flat or low-pitched roof with a maximum slope of 10 degrees and a green roof, which we want to have constructed as a hipped roof.
Due to the building plot’s size restrictions, our house can be a maximum of 8.50 m (28 feet) wide. We aim for 130–135 m² (1,400–1,450 sq ft) of living space.
Ground Floor Requirements:
- Side entrance on the east side with an adjacent carport, possibly also on the south side
- Small entrance hall (currently wasted space)
- Utility room should be at least 9 m² (97 sq ft)
- Staircase preferably as shown or a half-turn staircase (maybe with storage under the stairs)
- Guest bathroom with a shower
- Cloakroom niche
- The kitchen layout should be roughly similar to the floor plan
- The fireplace is unfortunately misplaced—it should actually be where the couch is. According to the builder, this is not possible with this city villa design.
On the north and west sides, we have a nice field next to the property, so we want windows facing those directions.
Upper Floor Requirements:
- Circulation space connecting bedroom, dressing room, and bathroom, with the bathroom also accessible from the hallway
- For the bed, we need at least 3.80 m (12.5 feet) of space, and we have about 6 m (20 feet) of wardrobe (Ikea Pax) that needs to be accommodated
- Home office
- Children’s room
Maybe you have some ideas on how to optimize this floor plan. We are looking forward to your suggestions.
Good luck
M & T
Good morning 🙂
From what I understand in this thread, one of the problems is that you are dissatisfied but cannot clearly explain what the issue is. You share a floor plan and expect solutions, but provide almost no additional information. If you communicate like this with your designer, I can understand why they might find it difficult. Besides that, I also believe you are asking for the impossible.
From what I understand in this thread, one of the problems is that you are dissatisfied but cannot clearly explain what the issue is. You share a floor plan and expect solutions, but provide almost no additional information. If you communicate like this with your designer, I can understand why they might find it difficult. Besides that, I also believe you are asking for the impossible.
Good morning 🙂
The expression fits well: if you require certain dimensions, they must fit somewhere and also match the counterpart on the other floor and the opposite wall.
I will explain my answer from yesterday again.
- So, if the building envelope is only 8.50 meters wide, then I cannot use a wall inside the house as an extra-long one (bedroom), while the rest of the house width is supposed to accommodate a long staircase. You would have to position the bed, for example, across the room, because lengthwise you only have about 3 meters (10 feet).
- With 130/135 sqm (1400/1450 sq ft), some rooms cannot be designed well or only with compromises if the other rooms are to remain around standard size. This applies to the office (with two children), sauna, walk-in closet, bedroom on the ground floor, utility room on the upper floor, pantry, and all those additional rooms that usually require more than 160 sqm (1700 sq ft). Often you can just squeeze in a pantry, a small sauna, or a small storage room, but then you have deficits in other rooms.
- 130/135 sqm (1400/1450 sq ft) is also not enough for a large freezer room alongside the mentioned standard rooms (3 bedrooms upstairs, multipurpose room, guest toilet).
- A simple narrow fireplace ideally needs about 1 meter (3 ft) of clearance around it, so approximately 2.40 meters (8 ft) in width and 1 meter (3 ft) in front. Anything standing in this semicircle might get scorched. That space is also hard to achieve in a house, especially with a footprint of about 65/70 sqm (700/750 sq ft), which basically leaves no room for it.
I still don’t understand the panoramic window in the walk-in closet:
the most beautiful corner of the house should be used for a living space, not a utility room where you get dressed.
Experienced readers know that I usually draw alternatives. But I do that only if the site plan is clear and the builder/questioner provides specific information.
Therefore, here is an example from Danwood to show what fits in a 130 sqm (1400 sq ft) house.
I chose Danwood because they often plan with open corridors.
Here you can see that it gets quite tight but everything is there. If you shift the bedroom door, another cupboard element fits behind this wall; if you reduce the size of the children’s room on the right side of the plan, you can get either a sauna or a storage room as an attic substitute.
The tunnel fireplace obviously does not fit because it would dominate everything, and I also don’t see a chimney in this clearly structured layout.
And another tip: definitely avoid a concrete staircase in a small house as shown here. A wooden staircase feels lighter due to the material, and with risers you can generate storage space underneath.
Ysop*** schrieb:
that I also believe you are wishing for the impossible.
The expression fits well: if you require certain dimensions, they must fit somewhere and also match the counterpart on the other floor and the opposite wall.
I will explain my answer from yesterday again.
- So, if the building envelope is only 8.50 meters wide, then I cannot use a wall inside the house as an extra-long one (bedroom), while the rest of the house width is supposed to accommodate a long staircase. You would have to position the bed, for example, across the room, because lengthwise you only have about 3 meters (10 feet).
- With 130/135 sqm (1400/1450 sq ft), some rooms cannot be designed well or only with compromises if the other rooms are to remain around standard size. This applies to the office (with two children), sauna, walk-in closet, bedroom on the ground floor, utility room on the upper floor, pantry, and all those additional rooms that usually require more than 160 sqm (1700 sq ft). Often you can just squeeze in a pantry, a small sauna, or a small storage room, but then you have deficits in other rooms.
- 130/135 sqm (1400/1450 sq ft) is also not enough for a large freezer room alongside the mentioned standard rooms (3 bedrooms upstairs, multipurpose room, guest toilet).
- A simple narrow fireplace ideally needs about 1 meter (3 ft) of clearance around it, so approximately 2.40 meters (8 ft) in width and 1 meter (3 ft) in front. Anything standing in this semicircle might get scorched. That space is also hard to achieve in a house, especially with a footprint of about 65/70 sqm (700/750 sq ft), which basically leaves no room for it.
I still don’t understand the panoramic window in the walk-in closet:
the most beautiful corner of the house should be used for a living space, not a utility room where you get dressed.
Experienced readers know that I usually draw alternatives. But I do that only if the site plan is clear and the builder/questioner provides specific information.
Therefore, here is an example from Danwood to show what fits in a 130 sqm (1400 sq ft) house.
I chose Danwood because they often plan with open corridors.
Here you can see that it gets quite tight but everything is there. If you shift the bedroom door, another cupboard element fits behind this wall; if you reduce the size of the children’s room on the right side of the plan, you can get either a sauna or a storage room as an attic substitute.
The tunnel fireplace obviously does not fit because it would dominate everything, and I also don’t see a chimney in this clearly structured layout.
And another tip: definitely avoid a concrete staircase in a small house as shown here. A wooden staircase feels lighter due to the material, and with risers you can generate storage space underneath.
kbt09 schrieb:
@ypg ... where did you get the sauna from? Otherwise, I am also waiting for a site plan; before that, looking for example floor plans doesn’t make much sense, since you don’t know the plot or its context within the surroundings.MiTo2020 schrieb:
A walk-in closet should definitely be planned, we have a lot of wardrobes that need to be accommodated 🙄...
The shower bathroom is too large for me; there should be a cloakroom planned in there as well. Upstairs bathroom, we plan, if possible, to include a small sauna. Here it says it... I get the feeling the original poster isn’t really open to example floor plans.
SoL schrieb:
I suspect that this became a wishful thinking exercise, now 130m² (1400 sq ft) has to be enough, but nobody wants to give up any of their wishes.
It’s just a bad combination... I would call it annoying. There are really nice small houses where you can live comfortably, but not if you fill them with wishes that would require a mansion.
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