ᐅ Floor Plan Single-Family Home 165 sqm First Draft – Architect Dissatisfied
Created on: 27 Oct 2024 14:06
K
Kirschsaftlady
Hello everyone,
since we are not completely satisfied with the first draft from our architect and find it difficult to translate our wishes into a design ourselves, or because some things might even be incompatible, we would appreciate suggestions and tips.
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 954 sqm (10,270 sq ft)
Slope: approximately 1 m (3.3 ft) downward from the street along the entire length
Floor-space index (FSI): 0.4
Building envelope, building line, and boundary: see architect’s plan
There is a development plan, but all exceptions we want have been approved without issues or have already been permitted for our street.
Client Requirements
Style, roof shape, building type: gable roof, single-family house, possibly with a bay window
Basement, floors: slab-on-grade, 2 full stories with a sufficiently high knee wall, small storage space under the roof
Number of occupants, age: currently 2 adults and one toddler, planning for an additional child
Space requirements on ground floor (GF) and upper floor (UF):
GF: combined utility and technical room, entrance area, cloakroom niche, guest bathroom with shower, office, open living-dining-kitchen area. Pantry, storage under the stairs
UF: 2 children’s rooms at least 15 sqm (160 sq ft) each, master bedroom with walk-in closet, family bathroom with walk-in shower and double sinks, hallway with daylight and preferably space for a chair or a small table for a sewing machine
Office: family use or home office? Home office nearly daily
Guests per year: hardly any
Open or closed layout: semi-open
Conservative or modern construction: modern
Open kitchen, cooking island: semi-open (visually screened) with attached island
Number of dining seats: 6
Fireplace: no
Music/speaker wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: either a double garage or a garage with carport
Additional wishes:
Stairs either straight or with a landing, not spiral
Living-dining-kitchen area should not be arranged in a single line without privacy screens, all areas with a view into the garden
Prefer an additional access from the garage/carport through the utility room
Master bedroom oriented top left on the plan, bed with a view out of a floor-to-ceiling window into the garden. Preferred access to the bedroom through the dressing room or the dressing room behind the wall behind the bed (headboard).
Prefer children’s rooms not adjoining the master bedroom wall-to-wall
I will link a plan of a kitchen we really liked in a show house
Prefer the stairs to be naturally lit
Living room at least as large as in the current plan
House Design
Designed by: architect
What do you particularly like? Why? The ground floor, except kitchen and dining area, especially the living room, is well separated and without direct view into the kitchen. The dining area feels somewhat cramped; the kitchen should be wider rather than longer, as currently the attached island looks lost.
What do you dislike? Why? Kitchen and dining area, walk-in closet cramped in a niche, bathroom too large, upper floor hallway without windows. Window areas in the master bedroom and also in the dining-kitchen area too large, cloakroom niche too small.
Price estimate according to architect/planner: none yet, a discussion about the design is still pending.
Personal budget limit for the house including fittings: excluding the plot, with all additional costs, survey, and soil report, we still have a budget of 600,000. It will be a prefabricated house, possibly painting and partial flooring done by ourselves, landscaping also mainly DIY and not immediately.
Preferred heating system: air-to-water heat pump with photovoltaic system
If you have to give up on certain details/extensions:
-can you do without: children’s room next to the master bedroom, storage and office could move upstairs if necessary, utility and technical rooms separated, second access not mandatory, pantry access directly from kitchen as well as from utility room not mandatory, bay window not essential as long as it doesn’t make the layout too open
-can’t you do without: stair shape, room layout, bedroom location, “semi-open” living-dining-kitchen area, cloakroom integrated into a niche
Why is the design the way it is?
There was an on-site meeting where brainstorming on paper followed. The current draft more or less resulted from this, but it was not yet final with dimensions and sizes, so for example, the problem with the kitchen and dining area was not visible. We communicated the negative points about the upper floor on site and actually expected a new alternative afterward.
I think all relevant information is included above; I’m happy to provide more if needed.
The dining table does not have to be directly in front of the kitchen; the focus is solely on the kitchen layout itself.
Thanks in advance for all your tips!
since we are not completely satisfied with the first draft from our architect and find it difficult to translate our wishes into a design ourselves, or because some things might even be incompatible, we would appreciate suggestions and tips.
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 954 sqm (10,270 sq ft)
Slope: approximately 1 m (3.3 ft) downward from the street along the entire length
Floor-space index (FSI): 0.4
Building envelope, building line, and boundary: see architect’s plan
There is a development plan, but all exceptions we want have been approved without issues or have already been permitted for our street.
Client Requirements
Style, roof shape, building type: gable roof, single-family house, possibly with a bay window
Basement, floors: slab-on-grade, 2 full stories with a sufficiently high knee wall, small storage space under the roof
Number of occupants, age: currently 2 adults and one toddler, planning for an additional child
Space requirements on ground floor (GF) and upper floor (UF):
GF: combined utility and technical room, entrance area, cloakroom niche, guest bathroom with shower, office, open living-dining-kitchen area. Pantry, storage under the stairs
UF: 2 children’s rooms at least 15 sqm (160 sq ft) each, master bedroom with walk-in closet, family bathroom with walk-in shower and double sinks, hallway with daylight and preferably space for a chair or a small table for a sewing machine
Office: family use or home office? Home office nearly daily
Guests per year: hardly any
Open or closed layout: semi-open
Conservative or modern construction: modern
Open kitchen, cooking island: semi-open (visually screened) with attached island
Number of dining seats: 6
Fireplace: no
Music/speaker wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: either a double garage or a garage with carport
Additional wishes:
Stairs either straight or with a landing, not spiral
Living-dining-kitchen area should not be arranged in a single line without privacy screens, all areas with a view into the garden
Prefer an additional access from the garage/carport through the utility room
Master bedroom oriented top left on the plan, bed with a view out of a floor-to-ceiling window into the garden. Preferred access to the bedroom through the dressing room or the dressing room behind the wall behind the bed (headboard).
Prefer children’s rooms not adjoining the master bedroom wall-to-wall
I will link a plan of a kitchen we really liked in a show house
Prefer the stairs to be naturally lit
Living room at least as large as in the current plan
House Design
Designed by: architect
What do you particularly like? Why? The ground floor, except kitchen and dining area, especially the living room, is well separated and without direct view into the kitchen. The dining area feels somewhat cramped; the kitchen should be wider rather than longer, as currently the attached island looks lost.
What do you dislike? Why? Kitchen and dining area, walk-in closet cramped in a niche, bathroom too large, upper floor hallway without windows. Window areas in the master bedroom and also in the dining-kitchen area too large, cloakroom niche too small.
Price estimate according to architect/planner: none yet, a discussion about the design is still pending.
Personal budget limit for the house including fittings: excluding the plot, with all additional costs, survey, and soil report, we still have a budget of 600,000. It will be a prefabricated house, possibly painting and partial flooring done by ourselves, landscaping also mainly DIY and not immediately.
Preferred heating system: air-to-water heat pump with photovoltaic system
If you have to give up on certain details/extensions:
-can you do without: children’s room next to the master bedroom, storage and office could move upstairs if necessary, utility and technical rooms separated, second access not mandatory, pantry access directly from kitchen as well as from utility room not mandatory, bay window not essential as long as it doesn’t make the layout too open
-can’t you do without: stair shape, room layout, bedroom location, “semi-open” living-dining-kitchen area, cloakroom integrated into a niche
Why is the design the way it is?
There was an on-site meeting where brainstorming on paper followed. The current draft more or less resulted from this, but it was not yet final with dimensions and sizes, so for example, the problem with the kitchen and dining area was not visible. We communicated the negative points about the upper floor on site and actually expected a new alternative afterward.
I think all relevant information is included above; I’m happy to provide more if needed.
The dining table does not have to be directly in front of the kitchen; the focus is solely on the kitchen layout itself.
Thanks in advance for all your tips!
Kirschsaftlady schrieb:
What do you think about the new designs?I’m scratching my head and can’t figure out what profession the operator of this graphics software might have.Kirschsaftlady schrieb:
Are there any obvious no-gos that we might have missed?If there are, it’s, to put it kindly, hard to tell.To me, it looks like a young teenager trying to earn some pocket money by hacking amateur sketches into his PC and turning your building idea into a very basic simulation. A professional architect (in Germany) wouldn’t work like this. The draftsman from @prm2021 in Croatia delivered a higher level of quality.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
11ant schrieb:
Whether that is the case is, to put it politely, difficult to determine. I don’t want to be harsh, but since my work involves papillary ridges, I immediately thought, looking at the phone screenshot, that someone had graphically altered a very small section of the fingerprint ridges in a modern style, which resulted in this appearance.
K
Kirschsaftlady20 Nov 2024 06:45There are no more screenshots available. I’ve learned from this and am sending everything now 😉
We haven’t worked with an architect yet, so we don’t know what kind of sketch to expect or how it should look. The exterior wall on the upper floor isn’t complete, and one side is missing dimension details at the bottom. That’s clear, and it’s also somewhat frustrating because it makes it harder to evaluate the rooms properly. Are you missing the exterior view and cross-sections?
This is not meant to be a finished design plan but just some ideas to work from. The detailed work will come later—maybe I didn’t express that clearly enough.
We haven’t worked with an architect yet, so we don’t know what kind of sketch to expect or how it should look. The exterior wall on the upper floor isn’t complete, and one side is missing dimension details at the bottom. That’s clear, and it’s also somewhat frustrating because it makes it harder to evaluate the rooms properly. Are you missing the exterior view and cross-sections?
This is not meant to be a finished design plan but just some ideas to work from. The detailed work will come later—maybe I didn’t express that clearly enough.
Kirschsaftlady schrieb:
This is not meant to be a finished design plan, but just ideas to help us continue working. So the detailed work is still to come; maybe I didn’t express that clearly enough. These Windows 3.11 childish sketches are even further from a basis for fine-tuning than the Marlboro Man is willing to walk. The clarity that these are supposed to represent floor plans was already much more advanced in the original post. You at least have a plot of land, and if I remember correctly, you have already paid the guy something, even if below the usual fee schedule. My expectation (not only in my head but also stated in the planning contract) would be to receive a preliminary draft usable for a building permit / planning permission pre-application with the local authority and for initial cost estimates from construction companies. I see no improvement regarding the original deficiency. You have received new little drawings that you can either pity yourselves for or be laughed at—this, to me, is nowhere near what I could call a goal (even just an interim one). I am happy to help you find an architect and a construction company, but it won’t be this year anymore.
Kirschsaftlady schrieb:
There are only the screenshots. I’ve learned and I’m sending everything 😉 What use is it if the planner hasn’t learned anything?
Kirschsaftlady schrieb:
We haven’t worked with an architect yet, so we don’t know what kind of sketches to expect or what they should look like. The exterior wall on the upper floor is incomplete, and the measurements are missing on one side downstairs, that’s clear, and for one thing this annoys us because it makes it harder to assess the rooms properly. Otherwise, are you missing the exterior views and sections? Two roughly most incomplete paint program sketches are nothing but an insult. The word "correction" should contain "better." So far, the planner has only underperformed, and now he’s mocking you as well (and you, for some reason, seem to still be grateful for this or at least appeased). Take a look at any other planning threads here—this is what low-quality drafting looks like, which a real architect should effortlessly surpass by far. I can’t believe it.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
Kirschsaftlady schrieb:
This is not meant to be a finished design plan, but just ideas to work from. The detailed work will come later; maybe I didn’t express that clearly enough. No one wants to criticize you, but rather to highlight, based on knowledge or experience, how inadequate the (lack of) work here is—even after a second attempt. Aside from slightly increasing the costs you’re effectively throwing out the window, the current result offers zero added value.
The consistent statements here clearly show you the extent of what has been delivered.
An architect must, in addition to their core tasks, be able to provide you as clients with something tangible that allows you to imagine and shape your future home. How are you supposed to make corrections when there is literally nothing to see except a half-baked puzzle?
I truly understand that such a separation is unpleasant, but considering the obstacles still ahead in your home building project, I would strongly advise you to reconsider—especially since this person clearly cannot do better and is probably aware of this themselves!
I see no glimmer of hope that would make me stay with this person; on the contrary, I hear all the warning bells when I look at how things are progressing and the likely outcome.
Handing this back to you a second time as an “improved” measure is nothing less than a disrespectful slap in the face that you should not accept. Your next, genuine architect would tell you this just as clearly.
Arauki11 schrieb:
The consistency of the similar statements here gives you an idea of the "work done."
An architect must, besides their core tasks, also be able to provide you as clients with something that allows you to visualize and shape your future home in your imagination. How should you make corrections when there is nothing to see except a half-baked Tetris. I’m linking an example that is really discouragingly bad, but still far more usable compared to what we have here: https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/grundriss-planung-2-vollgeschosse-ca-130-140-qm-ohne-keller.39946/
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
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