ᐅ Floor plan design for a new urban villa with a basement

Created on: 28 Feb 2019 20:40
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Petey01
Hello everyone,

We are currently in the planning phase for a new build and are currently favoring the following floor plans:
I look forward to your opinions and suggestions.

Development plan/restrictions: no relevant restrictions for our project
Plot size: 638 sqm (6867 sq ft)

Town villa with hipped roof: 2 full stories plus basement, terrace side with bay window
Number of occupants: 2 plus 1–2 in the future
Office in the basement: home office plus occasional client meetings
Overnight guests per year: approx. 5–10
Open architecture
Modern construction
Open kitchen
Fireplace: built-in masonry stove; considering a water-bearing fireplace

Garage: double garage with hipped roof style directly attached to the house
Entrance side = street side, entrance with canopy in hipped roof style
Solid construction without ventilation system

Planning by:
- Planner from a construction company based on our requirements

What we like particularly: large living/dining area and spacious bedrooms
What we dislike: the small office/storage room on the ground floor without windows
Preferred heating system: air-to-water heat pump + underfloor heating + fireplace,
also considering switching to a gas heating system.

Additionally, we are uncertain whether to use 36.5cm (14.4 inches) bricks with a U-value of 0.23 or 36.5cm (14.4 inches) bricks with integrated insulation (U-value 0.18) — are the additional costs worthwhile?

Is it worth installing a water-bearing fireplace?

Ansichten West und Ost eines zweigeschossigen Hauses mit Garage, Bäumen, Auto links, Fahrrad rechts.

Architekturzeichnung zweier Häuser: Nord- und Südansicht mit Garage.

Grundriss Kellergeschoss: KELLER 1 (44,31 m2), Büro, Flur KG, Technik/HWR, Türen, Treppen

Grundriss des Obergeschosses mit Schlafzimmer, zwei Kinderzimmern, Ankleide, Bad und Flur.

Grundriss Erdgeschoss: offener Wohn-/Essbereich, Küche, Büro, Speis, Diele, Garage, Terrasse.
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Otus11
1 Mar 2019 07:03
The upper floor hallway completely without natural daylight will also be very dark...

Budget doesn’t matter since it wasn’t specified?
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Curly
1 Mar 2019 07:48
It seems that your ceiling height won’t be very high. Is the sloped washbasin intended to be built that way? It only reduces the bathroom space unnecessarily, and the area behind it is unusable.

Best regards,
Sabine
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ypg
1 Mar 2019 07:57
Curly schrieb:
That only makes the bathroom unnecessarily smaller, and no one can make use of the space behind it.

The shower is located behind it.
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Curly
1 Mar 2019 08:41
ypg schrieb:
Behind that is the shower

I imagine that could be tricky with the windows. Wouldn’t everything get wet there?

Best regards
Sabine
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haydee
1 Mar 2019 09:12
If the showerhead remains at the back, the wall near the washbasin gets the most wet. I don’t see this as a problem. We also don’t have any shower enclosures.
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Crossy
1 Mar 2019 09:36
The house is too deep. More width (and less depth) would create better room layouts.

I find the kitchen very difficult to furnish, far too narrow and elongated. It won’t work as a modern kitchen with an island this way. At least I would close the direct pantry access, or if it has to stay, place it in the middle to allow the kitchen to be set up along both long walls. But even then, I wouldn’t personally like it.

The office upstairs is really poorly designed. It’s basically just a storage room, but with the basement, it’s unnecessary.

The living room is also hard to furnish. You can already see this from the small sofa drawn in. How are you supposed to fit a proper L-shaped sofa for a family of four and at the same time face the TV? Also, the sofa is placed in front of a floor-to-ceiling window. What’s the purpose of that?

The bay window looks nicer from the outside, but it doesn’t add any real value inside the house. On the ground floor, it will probably just become an expensive corner for placing plants, and the awkward corners in the children’s rooms are unusable. So the bay window is an expensive feature without practical benefit.

The staircase right next to the entrance door is also a matter of taste.

I would also miss having a designated wardrobe area.

Upstairs, I would at least make the walk-in closet accessible from the hallway. Remove the door to the bedroom, center the window, and arrange it so furniture can be placed on both sides. As a proper walk-in closet, it’s too small anyway—more of a dressing room. And if the wardrobe is moved out of the master bedroom, I actually find the bedroom quite large already.

I would really like to see the upstairs bathroom in person.

Overall, I don’t like it. There’s something to criticize in every room. That’s why I would start over and give the house more width. I don’t know if the plot allows for that, though.