ᐅ Floor Plan Design for a Single-Family Home of 230-235 m² on Two Full Stories
Created on: 11 Jul 2021 16:11
H
Hausbauer4747
By now, we have put quite a lot of thought into a practical, well-usable, and hopefully attractive floor plan, and we would like to reach a final decision fairly soon. We look forward to your feedback and thank you in advance for any tips or suggestions. 🙂
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 2,600 m² (approximately 0.64 acres), completely flat
Site coverage ratio / floor area ratio: 0.4 / 0.8
Number of floors: two full stories
Roof type: hip roof or pyramid roof with 22-25° pitch
Architectural style: modern
Orientation: the floor plans are always aligned with north at the top; the street side is on the east
Maximum heights / limits: the eave height is somewhat tight at 6 meters (approximately 20 feet), otherwise there is plenty of space. Building envelope and setbacks are sufficiently large, so we do not need to apply for any exceptions from the development plan.
Homeowners’ Requirements
Style, roof type, building type: “urban villa,” hip or pyramid roof with 22-25°
No basement, two full stories
Two adults, three children currently under 3 years old
Room needs on ground floor and upper floor: three children’s bedrooms with a children’s shower bathroom, guest room and office as two separate rooms
Ground floor with rather open architecture
A gas fireplace is an option, but we are likely to forgo it due to the effort of connecting gas and chimney costs
Both garage and carport planned (approx. 6x9 m (20x30 feet) garage and carport about 4x7 m (13x23 feet) located between the house and garage)
House Design
Planning origin: self-designed based on a discussed external dimension of about 12x12 meters (approximately 39x39 feet)
What do you particularly like and why? The house is relatively large and accommodates all room concepts (3 children’s bedrooms with children’s shower bathroom, separate guest room and office, etc.). We like the orientation by cardinal directions (living room southwest, children’s rooms south or southwest, master and guest bedrooms west facing the garden, bathrooms to the east, and front door facing north).
What do you dislike and why? The design focuses primarily on usability rather than aesthetics. For example, representative hallways with little practical use were avoided. However, it is difficult for us to achieve symmetrical and visually pleasing window alignment between the ground and upper floors. This is visible, for example, in the window of the children’s shower bathroom and the utility room below it.
Preferred heating technology: ground source heat pump, but for cost reasons, it will probably be an air-to-water heat pump.
If you have to give up, which features or additions could you do without
- What can you give up: KfW40+ with large photovoltaic system (instead opting for KfW55 with medium photovoltaic system), brick cladding, underfloor cooling, en-suite guest bathroom, showers could possibly be smaller if costs get too high
- What you cannot do without: children’s shower bathroom, (preferably) controlled ventilation system (mechanical supply and exhaust)
What is the most important/fundamental question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
Are we overlooking anything in this floor plan that would annoy us daily later because it is poorly or very impractically planned? Can we find a visual trick to achieve exterior symmetry?
Many thanks!
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 2,600 m² (approximately 0.64 acres), completely flat
Site coverage ratio / floor area ratio: 0.4 / 0.8
Number of floors: two full stories
Roof type: hip roof or pyramid roof with 22-25° pitch
Architectural style: modern
Orientation: the floor plans are always aligned with north at the top; the street side is on the east
Maximum heights / limits: the eave height is somewhat tight at 6 meters (approximately 20 feet), otherwise there is plenty of space. Building envelope and setbacks are sufficiently large, so we do not need to apply for any exceptions from the development plan.
Homeowners’ Requirements
Style, roof type, building type: “urban villa,” hip or pyramid roof with 22-25°
No basement, two full stories
Two adults, three children currently under 3 years old
Room needs on ground floor and upper floor: three children’s bedrooms with a children’s shower bathroom, guest room and office as two separate rooms
Ground floor with rather open architecture
A gas fireplace is an option, but we are likely to forgo it due to the effort of connecting gas and chimney costs
Both garage and carport planned (approx. 6x9 m (20x30 feet) garage and carport about 4x7 m (13x23 feet) located between the house and garage)
House Design
Planning origin: self-designed based on a discussed external dimension of about 12x12 meters (approximately 39x39 feet)
What do you particularly like and why? The house is relatively large and accommodates all room concepts (3 children’s bedrooms with children’s shower bathroom, separate guest room and office, etc.). We like the orientation by cardinal directions (living room southwest, children’s rooms south or southwest, master and guest bedrooms west facing the garden, bathrooms to the east, and front door facing north).
What do you dislike and why? The design focuses primarily on usability rather than aesthetics. For example, representative hallways with little practical use were avoided. However, it is difficult for us to achieve symmetrical and visually pleasing window alignment between the ground and upper floors. This is visible, for example, in the window of the children’s shower bathroom and the utility room below it.
Preferred heating technology: ground source heat pump, but for cost reasons, it will probably be an air-to-water heat pump.
If you have to give up, which features or additions could you do without
- What can you give up: KfW40+ with large photovoltaic system (instead opting for KfW55 with medium photovoltaic system), brick cladding, underfloor cooling, en-suite guest bathroom, showers could possibly be smaller if costs get too high
- What you cannot do without: children’s shower bathroom, (preferably) controlled ventilation system (mechanical supply and exhaust)
What is the most important/fundamental question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
Are we overlooking anything in this floor plan that would annoy us daily later because it is poorly or very impractically planned? Can we find a visual trick to achieve exterior symmetry?
Many thanks!
M
Myrna_Loy11 Jul 2021 20:10If I’m already spending a good million on a house, I would hire an architect to design a beautiful, well-thought-out, and interesting home, instead of starting with a fixed DIY plan. Otherwise, it’s just an oversized single-family house.
H
Hausbauer474711 Jul 2021 21:30RomeoZwo schrieb:
Mainly adjust between the ground floor and the upper floor.Does that mean that the windows on the top and bottom should be the same size, even if they are not exactly aligned?
RomeoZwo schrieb:
Why this square shape? For the size of the house, a rectangular layout would offer advantages in my opinion, e.g., 10.5m x 13.5m (34.4 ft x 44.3 ft) or similar. That could make the staircase area brighter and more attractive. By the way, I find the staircase quite space-optimized for the house size.That’s an interesting approach; we will definitely take a closer look at it.
Ysop*** schrieb:
I’m not quite convinced by the open-plan living area yet. Because of the square shape, you have too much space in the living room, while the kitchen and dining area feels cramped.
Is that recessed corner in the kitchen supposed to be for a side-by-side fridge? Can the doors fully open if the fridge is so close to the wall?There is not much space around the dining table, but usually the chairs are mostly tucked under it. The kitchen is currently just a placeholder. The cabinets could easily be made narrower towards the dining area to balance things out. There is a lot of empty space behind the sofa, which I also noticed. Right now, the children play in such areas. We also have an armchair with a reading corner and a table for the kids to draw at. You can usually find a use for these spaces, even when the kids get older. 🙂
The fridge position was shifted a bit by RoomSketcher when creating the floor plan; it should ideally be flush with the other cabinets, so the wall will need to be set back a little. To allow the doors to open fully, the fridge will probably need to protrude about 4 cm (1.6 inches) from the cabinet front, but that’s absolutely fine.
vonBYnachSH schrieb:
For five people, I find the entrance hallway way too small. Where do you plan to store all your coats and shoes?
Overall, storage rooms are missing. Keep in mind you don’t have a basement. Our house is similar in size, but for five people, we have an 18 sqm (193 sq ft) storage room, a 6 sqm (65 sq ft) storage room, and a significantly larger hallway. We have few belongings yet I still wouldn’t want less space!
The children's bedrooms are smaller—in your case, I find them almost too large; I would prefer more storage space instead.That’s very interesting feedback because we currently have significantly less hallway and storage space and believe this to be a clear improvement. In the show homes, the storage space under the stairs was always much bigger than it looked or what the floor plan suggested. In addition, we have a utility room and a technical room, plus a long wall along the hallway.
driver55 schrieb:
Phew, first one would need dimensions...
But to start with what can be said without:
- Poor entrance area — for this "cabin" (usually I complain when it’s too large, here it’s the opposite…)
- Upper floor hallway is or will be dark
- During the "gathering" on the upper floor, you might as well shower at the same time...
- The living/dining/kitchen space already has 71 sqm (764 sq ft) but you can’t even get to the table without "mountain boots"
- Meanwhile, there’s about 15 sqm (161 sq ft) of living area with no real purpose...
- Child 1’s room has only 18 sqm (194 sq ft) on paper, closet maximum 1.5 m (5 feet)…
- Storage rooms/areas, as previous commenters noted, are missing...
Good overall concepts (size especially 🙂), but window symmetry (or lack thereof) is not the problem here...I haven’t found a way yet to display dimensions in RoomSketcher. That’s a pity because I also believe a floor plan without dimensions is only conditionally meaningful.
The ground floor hallway appeared twice now—what size do you consider reasonable? The upper floor hallway is deliberately designed without windows because pathways to windows are usually dead space that only enlarges the hallway. My childhood home also had a hallway upstairs without windows; we didn’t really miss it. We want to compensate with clever lighting. The guest toilet was shifted noticeably upwards so that the child bathroom window just overlaps the ground floor window. I would actually move it down a bit again. The furniture in the rooms is placeholder; in child 1’s room, the bed could be arranged differently, providing plenty of space for a longer closet. About 1 sqm (11 sq ft) is lost around the door, but it should still remain a well-usable room. The floor-to-ceiling windows or doors will have fixed elements in their lower half, allowing flexible furniture placement.
K1300S schrieb:
What exactly do you mean by "too expensive"? I remember you also wanted a pool...Floor-level tiled showers up to 1 sqm (11 sq ft) are included in the offer. If you want a shower, for example, 200 x 100 cm (79 x 39 inches), there is an additional cost. If it’s 200 or 300 euros for more tiles, that’s acceptable; if it’s 2,000 euros, we would forgo the larger showers.
For the landscaping, I have been too cautious in my estimates so far; it will probably cost just over half the projected amount. Still, the pool remains uncertain and will only be built if the rest of the plan stays unchanged. We probably have to wait, likely until excavation is done, to quantify the big unknown “additional earthworks.”
Myrna_Loy schrieb:
If you’re spending a good million on a house, I would look for an architect to design a beautiful, thoughtful, and interesting house rather than starting with a fixed DIY plan. This just feels like an inflated single-family home.Creative architect-designed houses are great, but not only is the architect expensive, the construction also costs much more. That would be nice, but we have set different priorities for ourselves.
M
Myrna_Loy11 Jul 2021 21:42Your multi-purpose room is currently about 90 sqm (970 sq ft) of open space arranged in a row. It’s not cozy; it’s just large. A good architect can design a 200 sqm (2,150 sq ft) house with more living comfort than your current plan.
H
Hausbauer474711 Jul 2021 21:59What is an Allraum? I am not familiar with this term. The kitchen, dining, and living areas together are about 70 m² (750 sq ft).
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