ᐅ Floor Plan Design: Orientation of a Single-Family Home and Optimization
Created on: 28 Jul 2023 21:17
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Häuslebauer132
Hello community,
we are complete beginners and hope for your help.
We are currently planning a single-family house (approx. 200m2 (2,150 sq ft)). We own a plot on the edge of town (with a nice view to the east and south) and have worked with a building designer to create two floor plans (one oriented mainly to the south, the other mainly to the east), but we are unsure which variant to choose regarding the cardinal directions and the plot.
We would really appreciate your opinions, ideas, and suggestions for improvement.
Thank you very much in advance 🙂
Here are the details:
Zoning Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 1,100m2 (12,000 sq ft)
Slope: no
Site coverage ratio: 0.35
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 2 full floors
Roof type: gable roof 18-30°; hip roof 18-30°; shed roof 2-15° (roof types of main and secondary buildings must be coordinated)
Other requirements: rounding of the town edge, compensation area factor 0.4 (plot boundary will be landscaped)
Client Requirements
Style, roof type, building type: modern, single-family house, gable or hip roof
Basement, floors: no basement, 2 full floors
Number of people, ages: 2 adults + 2 children (3 and 1 year old), possibly a third child
Space requirements on ground floor: shower bathroom, open kitchen-dining-living area with fireplace and large windows/glass fronts towards the view, utility/mudroom with access to garage, guest room, pantry, entrance area
Upper floor: master bedroom with dressing room, 2 children’s rooms, 1 office (which may later be used as a third child’s room), bathroom, possibly storage room
Office: family use or home office? Initially home office, possibly later a third child’s room
Overnight guests per year: regular visits from friends/grandparents
Open or closed architecture: open kitchen-dining-living area, otherwise rather closed
Conservative or modern construction: modern
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open kitchen with island
Number of dining seats: 8
Fireplace: yes
Music/speaker wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: garage with 2 parking spaces
Garden for vegetables, greenhouse: no
Other wishes/particularities/daily routine, also reasons why some features are desired or not:
- spacious utility room (also for hanging laundry if needed)
- access from garage to house via utility room (to change work clothes) – technical room in garage – possibly bathroom via utility room for laundry chute
- plenty of storage space for the children
House Design
Who created the design: building designer with input of own ideas
What do you like in particular? Why?: orientation of the main rooms towards the nicest sides
What do you not like? Why?
Variant 1: - main entrance not facing the street (would that be sensible or not?)
- no terrace option on the west side
Variant 2: - relatively small kitchen/dining/living area
- orientation towards the east
Cost estimate according to architect/designer: not available yet
Personal budget for house including fixtures: 550,000–600,000
Preferred heating technology: connect to existing heating network
If you had to give up something, which details/features
- could you give up: laundry chute, direct access from garage to the house (then with a side entrance)
- could you not give up: open living-dining-kitchen area, guest room on ground floor
Why is the design as it is now? For example
Standard design from the designer? No!
Which corresponding/wishes were implemented by the architect?
What do you consider particularly good or bad about it?
Not a standard design, collaboration and an attempt to accommodate all our wishes as best and cost-efficiently as possible. Lots of window area facing southeast.
What is the most important/basic question regarding the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?
Would you choose variant 1 (south-facing, still nice view but more towards the village) or variant 2 (best view but more towards northeast)?
Is the orientation of rooms, garage, and terrace in relation to cardinal directions sensible?
What suggestions for improvements or optimizations can you give us?
we are complete beginners and hope for your help.
We are currently planning a single-family house (approx. 200m2 (2,150 sq ft)). We own a plot on the edge of town (with a nice view to the east and south) and have worked with a building designer to create two floor plans (one oriented mainly to the south, the other mainly to the east), but we are unsure which variant to choose regarding the cardinal directions and the plot.
We would really appreciate your opinions, ideas, and suggestions for improvement.
Thank you very much in advance 🙂
Here are the details:
Zoning Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 1,100m2 (12,000 sq ft)
Slope: no
Site coverage ratio: 0.35
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 2 full floors
Roof type: gable roof 18-30°; hip roof 18-30°; shed roof 2-15° (roof types of main and secondary buildings must be coordinated)
Other requirements: rounding of the town edge, compensation area factor 0.4 (plot boundary will be landscaped)
Client Requirements
Style, roof type, building type: modern, single-family house, gable or hip roof
Basement, floors: no basement, 2 full floors
Number of people, ages: 2 adults + 2 children (3 and 1 year old), possibly a third child
Space requirements on ground floor: shower bathroom, open kitchen-dining-living area with fireplace and large windows/glass fronts towards the view, utility/mudroom with access to garage, guest room, pantry, entrance area
Upper floor: master bedroom with dressing room, 2 children’s rooms, 1 office (which may later be used as a third child’s room), bathroom, possibly storage room
Office: family use or home office? Initially home office, possibly later a third child’s room
Overnight guests per year: regular visits from friends/grandparents
Open or closed architecture: open kitchen-dining-living area, otherwise rather closed
Conservative or modern construction: modern
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open kitchen with island
Number of dining seats: 8
Fireplace: yes
Music/speaker wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: garage with 2 parking spaces
Garden for vegetables, greenhouse: no
Other wishes/particularities/daily routine, also reasons why some features are desired or not:
- spacious utility room (also for hanging laundry if needed)
- access from garage to house via utility room (to change work clothes) – technical room in garage – possibly bathroom via utility room for laundry chute
- plenty of storage space for the children
House Design
Who created the design: building designer with input of own ideas
What do you like in particular? Why?: orientation of the main rooms towards the nicest sides
What do you not like? Why?
Variant 1: - main entrance not facing the street (would that be sensible or not?)
- no terrace option on the west side
Variant 2: - relatively small kitchen/dining/living area
- orientation towards the east
Cost estimate according to architect/designer: not available yet
Personal budget for house including fixtures: 550,000–600,000
Preferred heating technology: connect to existing heating network
If you had to give up something, which details/features
- could you give up: laundry chute, direct access from garage to the house (then with a side entrance)
- could you not give up: open living-dining-kitchen area, guest room on ground floor
Why is the design as it is now? For example
Standard design from the designer? No!
Which corresponding/wishes were implemented by the architect?
What do you consider particularly good or bad about it?
Not a standard design, collaboration and an attempt to accommodate all our wishes as best and cost-efficiently as possible. Lots of window area facing southeast.
What is the most important/basic question regarding the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?
Would you choose variant 1 (south-facing, still nice view but more towards the village) or variant 2 (best view but more towards northeast)?
Is the orientation of rooms, garage, and terrace in relation to cardinal directions sensible?
What suggestions for improvements or optimizations can you give us?
Häuslebauer132 schrieb:
We wanted to upload the original designs, but it wasn’t possible.. Please no PDFs, and Gigapixel files (sheet size 3 m² (32 sq ft)) aren’t accepted either. Other original posters manage it, though.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
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hanghaus202329 Jul 2023 18:53Could the view eventually be blocked? Show it to us sometime.
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Häuslebauer13229 Jul 2023 19:42ypg schrieb:
Normally, you want to have daylight coming into the house through the west-facing windows in the afternoon. You lose that with a recessed garage. In winter, it can then get quite dark during the day.
And I asked about that.
Yes, but you can’t just cover €100,000 or €150,000 with DIY work.
That really depends on the floor plan, and for the reasons mentioned, I wouldn’t pursue either option further.
Then just try again. There are not even windows on the upper floor yet. Personally, I would place the garage on the east side with a short driveway. That way, you still have plenty of “views” to the east and window possibilities to the west. I would skip the utility room airlock instead of a hallway, and the technical room should be within the thermal envelope, as already mentioned.Then you would have to place the garage to the north, in front of the house, freeing up the east, south, and west sides.
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Häuslebauer13229 Jul 2023 19:45hanghaus2023 schrieb:
Could the view be blocked at some point? Please show it to us.No, since the adjacent area is outdoor space and also family-owned, it would have to be sold first.
How am I supposed to show the view?
Häuslebauer132 schrieb:
How should I show the view?As a standard color panoramic still image. Unfortunately, links to webcams are not allowed here :-)https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
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hanghaus202330 Jul 2023 13:29Taking a few photos with your phone is completely sufficient.