ᐅ Floor plan for a single-family home with two full stories and a recessed/stepped top floor
Created on: 15 Mar 2021 22:05
S
StephanM
Dear Homebuilding Forum,
As a newcomer to your group, here is the completed profile of our building project:
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 637sqm (6860 sq ft)
Slope: no, completely flat
Site coverage ratio: 0.4
Floor area ratio: 0.8
Building window, building line and boundary: street frontage 17.6m (58 ft), 3m (10 ft) setback on left and right sides, building window 11.6m (38 ft) wide x 12.5m (41 ft) deep
Adjacent buildings: single-family houses
Number of parking spaces: two possible
Number of floors: 2 full stories plus 1 setback floor with flat roof (minimum 1m (3 ft) recess on all four sides)
Roof type: gable roof & flat roof
Architectural style: many options allowed as long as aligned with design guidelines
Orientation: south-facing
Maximum height/limits: 9m (30 ft)
Other requirements
Homeowners’ Requirements
Style, roof form, building type: simple, timeless, flat roof, cube-shaped
Basement, floors: basement, ground floor, 1st floor, 2nd floor as setback level
Number of people, ages: 2 adults, 4 children between 1 and 6 years
Space requirements ground floor, upper floors: ground floor approx. 105-110sqm (1130-1180 sq ft), 1st floor approx. 100-105sqm (1080-1130 sq ft), 2nd floor approx. 40-45sqm (430-480 sq ft)
Office: family use or home office? 1 home office
Guest bedrooms per year: very rare
Open or closed architecture: open concept
Conservative or modern construction: conservative design
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open kitchen with island
Number of dining seats: at least 6, extendable to 8-9
Fireplace: maybe, but chimney routing is a bit complicated
Music/stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: balcony on 1st floor to soften the building volume, possibly a roof terrace on the 2nd floor if not too complicated
Garage, carport: originally planned garage on one side including storage and carport on the other side, now tend to only carport as garage affects overall appearance
Utility garden, greenhouse: kindergarten ;-)
Other wishes/special features/daily routine, also reasons for why this or that should or should not be included
House Design
Who designed it:
Do-it-Yourself
What do you like most and why?
That it was possible to arrange spacious children’s rooms and create space for two bathrooms. Public living areas on the ground floor, children’s floor on the 1st floor, and parents’ area on the 2nd floor.
What do you like least and why?
I’m uncertain about the positioning of the bathrooms relative to each other (complexity due to drainage pipes), and which staircase best serves the 1st floor layout. The building volume is still not ideal, but I have no further ideas on how to meet the zoning requirements.
Price estimate according to architect/planner: 640,000 EUR
Personal price limit for the house including fittings: approx. 700,000 EUR
Preferred heating system: geothermal
If you have to give up something, which details or extensions
- can you do without: additional room in the setback floor, terrace in the setback floor, already gave up on double garage as it overly restricted the floor plan :-( possibly external basement stairs
- cannot do without: 4 large children’s/teenage rooms, setback floor because we can’t fit all rooms on just 2 floors, basement as a lot of stuff accumulates with 4 children...
Why is the design like it is now? For example:
Because after many nights of planning I couldn’t come up with a better solution...
What makes it in your opinion particularly good or bad?
It meets our requirements on paper, but I lack the experience to judge whether it will work well in practice, which is why I’m asking for your opinions.
What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
How can I best organize the living space (especially but not only the 1st floor) and use the proper staircase design to create a spacious hallway without wasting area?
That was quite a bit of work ;-) I hope this information is useful for the further discussion.
In the next post I’ll share the floor plans and some exterior views (if I manage the attachments...)
Thank you in advance for your time reviewing this and for your honest and constructive feedback on the current design!
Best regards
Stephan
As a newcomer to your group, here is the completed profile of our building project:
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 637sqm (6860 sq ft)
Slope: no, completely flat
Site coverage ratio: 0.4
Floor area ratio: 0.8
Building window, building line and boundary: street frontage 17.6m (58 ft), 3m (10 ft) setback on left and right sides, building window 11.6m (38 ft) wide x 12.5m (41 ft) deep
Adjacent buildings: single-family houses
Number of parking spaces: two possible
Number of floors: 2 full stories plus 1 setback floor with flat roof (minimum 1m (3 ft) recess on all four sides)
Roof type: gable roof & flat roof
Architectural style: many options allowed as long as aligned with design guidelines
Orientation: south-facing
Maximum height/limits: 9m (30 ft)
Other requirements
Homeowners’ Requirements
Style, roof form, building type: simple, timeless, flat roof, cube-shaped
Basement, floors: basement, ground floor, 1st floor, 2nd floor as setback level
Number of people, ages: 2 adults, 4 children between 1 and 6 years
Space requirements ground floor, upper floors: ground floor approx. 105-110sqm (1130-1180 sq ft), 1st floor approx. 100-105sqm (1080-1130 sq ft), 2nd floor approx. 40-45sqm (430-480 sq ft)
Office: family use or home office? 1 home office
Guest bedrooms per year: very rare
Open or closed architecture: open concept
Conservative or modern construction: conservative design
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open kitchen with island
Number of dining seats: at least 6, extendable to 8-9
Fireplace: maybe, but chimney routing is a bit complicated
Music/stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: balcony on 1st floor to soften the building volume, possibly a roof terrace on the 2nd floor if not too complicated
Garage, carport: originally planned garage on one side including storage and carport on the other side, now tend to only carport as garage affects overall appearance
Utility garden, greenhouse: kindergarten ;-)
Other wishes/special features/daily routine, also reasons for why this or that should or should not be included
House Design
Who designed it:
Do-it-Yourself
What do you like most and why?
That it was possible to arrange spacious children’s rooms and create space for two bathrooms. Public living areas on the ground floor, children’s floor on the 1st floor, and parents’ area on the 2nd floor.
What do you like least and why?
I’m uncertain about the positioning of the bathrooms relative to each other (complexity due to drainage pipes), and which staircase best serves the 1st floor layout. The building volume is still not ideal, but I have no further ideas on how to meet the zoning requirements.
Price estimate according to architect/planner: 640,000 EUR
Personal price limit for the house including fittings: approx. 700,000 EUR
Preferred heating system: geothermal
If you have to give up something, which details or extensions
- can you do without: additional room in the setback floor, terrace in the setback floor, already gave up on double garage as it overly restricted the floor plan :-( possibly external basement stairs
- cannot do without: 4 large children’s/teenage rooms, setback floor because we can’t fit all rooms on just 2 floors, basement as a lot of stuff accumulates with 4 children...
Why is the design like it is now? For example:
Because after many nights of planning I couldn’t come up with a better solution...
What makes it in your opinion particularly good or bad?
It meets our requirements on paper, but I lack the experience to judge whether it will work well in practice, which is why I’m asking for your opinions.
What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
How can I best organize the living space (especially but not only the 1st floor) and use the proper staircase design to create a spacious hallway without wasting area?
That was quite a bit of work ;-) I hope this information is useful for the further discussion.
In the next post I’ll share the floor plans and some exterior views (if I manage the attachments...)
Thank you in advance for your time reviewing this and for your honest and constructive feedback on the current design!
Best regards
Stephan
11ant schrieb:
It was true that it took a long time, so I had to scroll back not only in my memory but also in the thread. And what did I see? — that instead of the rotary hammer, you only took the nail file in hand!That’s exactly how I felt.“The stair position defines the house.”
In this case, it is not placed correctly. And no: it does not disappear into nowhere when positioned properly. When the exterior walls align on the west side, it should be found here as well. Then with a large window on the upper floor/attic level, which also benefits the ground floor.
A
Alessandro8 Nov 2021 09:06The wardrobe and living room would be far too small for 6 people!
11ant schrieb:
All misconceptions, but architect training is not part of my unpaid contributions here. With a little more thinking for five cents, he can figure it out himself. Consistently identical stair layouts and a uniformly recessed setback floor (or a sloping roof) don’t go together. The unsatisfactory result is not caused by the setback but by the lazy architect.Could you give a tip on how you imagine this? I’m just really curious how this could be resolved.ypg schrieb:
In this case, it is not positioned correctly. And no: it does not disappear into thin air when properly placed. If on the west side the exterior walls align vertically, it should be found here as well.Unfortunately, that is not the case; the walls on the west side do not align vertically either?Würfel* schrieb:
Unfortunately, that is not the case, and the walls on the west side do not align either? Don’t you wonder why?
Would you just place the exterior walls arbitrarily?
As an architect or building planner, would you arrange individually offset levels without a clear alignment—for the benefit of the mason, structural engineer, and not least to incorporate a well-positioned staircase that doesn’t create awkward niches?
Setting aside the energy considerations, aiming to create as many exterior walls including ceilings and outer edges as possible?
Houses with setbacks or staggered cube designs are usually not arbitrary. There is at least one clear alignment for the observer, so the house doesn’t look chaotic or random.
My advice regarding the staircase arises from pulling the thermal envelope upwards on the west side in order to bring in light and openness through a west-facing stairwell connecting three floors. The garage then helps create a visual break.
If an offset is unavoidable, I would place an airspace behind the staircase so that the house and stairwell are visually and lighting-wise separated.
To me, the whole design is not a masterpiece but rather unconsidered arbitrariness.
Starting with a basement that is not included in the room program, continuing with the building envelope, the somewhat typical terraced house feel due to window placement, the two arbitrary walls on the ground floor, relatively large rooms, and finally the most important part: the staircase.
Würfel* schrieb:
Could you give a tip on how you imagine this? I'm just really curious about how it could be solved.Then contact me privately – as I said, architectural training is not my job here, so I prefer not to draw it out here ;-)https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
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