ᐅ Floor Plan Design for a 280 m² Single-Family Home on a Slope
Created on: 1 Oct 2017 19:05
D
Dark_Templar
Hello everyone,
I would like to gather as many opinions and experiences as possible regarding my current floor plan. After all, building a house usually happens only once, so it needs to be right. What potential issues do you see in the design? Any kind of criticism or ideas are welcome.
The plot is quite complicated (see topography in the attachment):
The street/driveway is at 815.90 meters (2677 ft), the ground level ranges between approximately 809.xx and 810.xx meters (2654-2657 ft) --> about 6 meters (20 ft) height difference to the street and about 1 meter (3 ft) within the building site.
Therefore, the living floor is on the ground level, bedrooms, utility/technical room in the basement, and office/guest/cellar also in the basement. In the floor plan, guest and office rooms in the basement are swapped: the office is the larger room.
Development plan/restrictions
Building window, building line and boundary: flexible, current exceedances are not an issue
Roof type: flat roof, presumably according to K2
Style: Bauhaus, modern
Orientation: southeast, facing the valley
Client requirements
Number of occupants: 2 adults, 1 toddler, 1 baby
No fireplace
Audio/stereo setup: home theater in the living room, to be installed in a media wall along the 4.50-meter (15 ft) long wall.
House design
Estimated price according to architect/planner: 700,000-800,000 euros (excluding land)
Personal price limit for the house, including fittings: 900,000 euros
Preferred heating technology: certain: controlled residential ventilation, home theater, gas heating with solar, air conditioning on the ground floor. Under consideration: light bus system (Busch Free@Home)
Note: Attachments will follow as I currently do not have sufficient rights to upload them 🙁
I would like to gather as many opinions and experiences as possible regarding my current floor plan. After all, building a house usually happens only once, so it needs to be right. What potential issues do you see in the design? Any kind of criticism or ideas are welcome.
The plot is quite complicated (see topography in the attachment):
The street/driveway is at 815.90 meters (2677 ft), the ground level ranges between approximately 809.xx and 810.xx meters (2654-2657 ft) --> about 6 meters (20 ft) height difference to the street and about 1 meter (3 ft) within the building site.
Therefore, the living floor is on the ground level, bedrooms, utility/technical room in the basement, and office/guest/cellar also in the basement. In the floor plan, guest and office rooms in the basement are swapped: the office is the larger room.
Development plan/restrictions
Building window, building line and boundary: flexible, current exceedances are not an issue
Roof type: flat roof, presumably according to K2
Style: Bauhaus, modern
Orientation: southeast, facing the valley
Client requirements
Number of occupants: 2 adults, 1 toddler, 1 baby
No fireplace
Audio/stereo setup: home theater in the living room, to be installed in a media wall along the 4.50-meter (15 ft) long wall.
House design
Estimated price according to architect/planner: 700,000-800,000 euros (excluding land)
Personal price limit for the house, including fittings: 900,000 euros
Preferred heating technology: certain: controlled residential ventilation, home theater, gas heating with solar, air conditioning on the ground floor. Under consideration: light bus system (Busch Free@Home)
Note: Attachments will follow as I currently do not have sufficient rights to upload them 🙁
Basically, one floor is completely unnecessary. The essential rooms are all on the sleeping level, making the living floor quite oversized, while the lowest level contains rooms that are mostly not needed. Possibly an office as well, but that could also fit in the living floor together with a storage room. In summary: the house is just too much, which makes it rather unappealing. From the afternoon onwards, you lose the sun and its comforting warmth—I can’t imagine anyone feeling comfortable living there for a long time or having a cozy daily life. Most likely, the mother will become stressed out eventually, and the father will prefer spending time in more comfortable hotel rooms. But I could be wrong [emoji6]
I also can’t imagine relaxing in the garden next to a 9-meter (30-foot) tall house. I find two stories already quite imposing from the outside when standing close.
I also can’t imagine relaxing in the garden next to a 9-meter (30-foot) tall house. I find two stories already quite imposing from the outside when standing close.
ypg schrieb:
Basically, one floor is way too much.
The necessary rooms are on the sleeping level, while the living level is quite oversized, and the lowest level contains rooms that are actually unnecessary. This is quite typical for the initial planning stages of hillside houses: it is difficult to divide the required space across three levels instead of two, so one floor ends up with half the rooms instead of just a third. On the level below, it’s hard to remove as much excess as there actually is, and on the level above, the space can’t be reduced enough. Altogether, this results in about 150% of the needed living area—that is, around 300 square meters (3,230 square feet).
Usually, the solution is that the layperson consults an architect. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the answer either if the architect is also inexperienced with hillside design.
However, this only explains the princely amount of floor space in this case. The distribution of windows is another issue altogether.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
I can more easily imagine that it comes from one corner: the slope demands a basement, the second corner asks: you are building with a basement, right? The third corner insists we need a basement! And the fourth corner doesn’t know any house without a basement.
This results in a house with hardly any garden access, but at least a basement with a terrace 🙂
@Dark_Templar
I would recommend a new design.
Because: bigger is not always better.
Personally, I also like spaciousness and planned storage areas, but too much is simply excessive and makes the house complicated and possibly cold and uninviting. The southeast-facing facade speaks for itself!
This results in a house with hardly any garden access, but at least a basement with a terrace 🙂
@Dark_Templar
I would recommend a new design.
Because: bigger is not always better.
Personally, I also like spaciousness and planned storage areas, but too much is simply excessive and makes the house complicated and possibly cold and uninviting. The southeast-facing facade speaks for itself!
merlin83 schrieb:
With direct contracting, costs often end up more than 10% higher than planned. Therefore, I would recommend increasing the contingency buffer slightly as a precaution. Why direct contracting should exclusively lead to an overrun of the original estimate by 10% really calls for an explanation [emoji4]
I cannot see any correlation or pattern here. Most overruns of x% are probably due more to the ever-growing demands of the client rather than the fact of individual contracting. The appetite usually grows while eating. I believe that an experienced architect can produce quite accurate cost estimates, but as a client, you often want more and more... speaking from personal experience [emoji6]
Having at least a 10% contingency is definitely very good advice – I fully agree with that [emoji1303]
ruppsn schrieb:
Why direct awarding should exclusively allow exceeding the original estimate by 10% calls for an explanation [emoji4]
I can’t see any correlation or pattern here. Most cost overruns by x% are probably due more to the ever-increasing desires of the client rather than the fact of individual contracting. The appetite usually grows while eating. I believe an experienced architect can provide fairly accurate cost estimates, but as a client, you often want more and more... speaking from personal experience [emoji6]
The minimum 10% contingency buffer is definitely very good advice – I fully agree with that [emoji1303] I said nothing different 🙂. There is nothing to add. With direct awarding, you just too often have the choice to pick something better 😀
Similar topics