ᐅ Floor Plan for a 200 sqm Urban Villa – Are Our Requirements Feasible?

Hello everyone,

I’m a bit overwhelmed with our floor plan and keep running into the same problems...
The main issue is probably how to integrate a straight staircase from the ground floor to the upper floor, and how we would have to modify or extend the hallway to fit such a staircase without "breaking up" the other rooms.

Development plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 1005 m² (0.25 acres)
Slope: no
Site coverage ratio: according to neighboring developments
Floor area ratio: according to neighboring developments
Building envelope, building line, and boundary: according to neighboring developments
Edge development: no
Number of parking spaces: double / large garage planned
Number of stories: 2
Roof type: hipped roof
Style: urban villa
Orientation: street facing northeast, plot extends sideways toward west-northwest, garden planned all around southwest / west-northwest

Client requirements
Style, roof type, building type: urban villa with hipped roof
Basement, floors: basement + ground floor + upper floor
Number of occupants, ages: 2 adults + young child (3)
Office: home office?
Closed architecture
Closed kitchen, kitchen island
Fireplace
Balcony
Garage

House design
Who designed the plan:
- Option 1: planner from a construction company (not yet an architect)
- Option 2: do-it-yourself

What do you particularly like? Why?
Overall, the floor plan is good and was implemented largely according to our ideas.
What do you dislike? Why?
We would prefer a straight staircase. According to a staircase calculator tool, it would require a length of 3.70 m (12 ft).
From research, this might be rather uncomfortable and therefore unrealistic.
We would be willing to extend the hallway for the straight staircase if necessary.
Symmetry, especially in the front view of the house, is very important to us, so we want to keep the type of front door as is.
The awkward corner in the upper hallway is not very appealing (bedroom / office).
Furthermore, the hallway window was initially placed in the child’s bedroom, but that will be changed so there is natural light in the upper floor hallway.
I’m also wondering if the chimney flue on the upper floor can still be routed freely, possibly offset within the ceiling/floor. Or does it have to go straight up from the ground floor fireplace? Because then it would end up right in the middle of the upper floor hallway.

If you have to give up something, which details or fittings could you do without?
- Could you compromise on: I’m open to suggestions for now
- Cannot compromise on: ideally the straight staircase

What do you think makes it particularly good or bad?
See differences between our design and the construction company’s plan
- straight staircase instead of quarter-turn
- kitchen recessed
- window in the hallway instead of in the child’s room
- ideally no hallway obstruction on the upper floor

Your floor plans do not align

Why are there two dining areas?
Why the bay window?
Why the huge bathroom on the ground floor?
Why the basement?

The house seems oversized in many areas, as if you don’t know how to use the space.
A straight staircase with a length of 3.7 meters (12 feet) won’t work. It needs to be 4 meters (13 feet). The entrance is one example:
You open the door and almost fall down the basement stairs. And yet there is a 9-square-meter (97-square-foot) guest bathroom—who or what is that for?

What is your budget?

haydee schrieb:

...

We would like a small everyday dining area and a larger one for guests. We are the center of our family, and celebrations are usually hosted at our place.

Edit: The dining area in the kitchen is just a bench with a small table.

The bay window is meant to break up the rather large house a bit, and we also like how it looks.

We currently live in just under 160sqm (1,722 sq ft) in an apartment and had a large apartment before that; we prefer not to downsize.

The guest bathroom could have been smaller for me. However, my husband wants it a bit bigger since it will also include a large cat litter box.

The basement will have a gym, a storage room, the utility room, and a hobby/second home office.

The current estimate from the builder for the house including the basement is about 550,000€.

What exactly do you mean about the staircase?
The basement stairs would start near the living room door; hopefully, no one can accidentally fall down them from the front door area.

Yes, I have also doubted the staircase calculations, but I don’t understand how it can comply with all DIN standards and still apparently not work.

ECE-2021 schrieb:

The main challenge is probably integrating a straight staircase from the ground floor to the upper floor, or how we would need to alter/extend the hallway to fit such a staircase without "destroying" the other rooms.

Why are you taking on this problem at all? Even a relatively minor modification, like straightening the initial flight of a spiral staircase, inevitably involves such a significant alteration of the floor plan that it cannot be done without substantial impact. Make changes based on a design that already meets your essential requirements in these key areas—otherwise, it’s not a solid foundation. If the straight staircase is that important to you, you should clearly communicate this to the building company’s planner.

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https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/

11ant schrieb:

If the straightness of the staircase is so essential for you, then you should communicate this clearly to the builder’s planner.

We actually communicated this to them, but it wasn’t implemented.
Perhaps because it wasn’t possible due to other design considerations.

The quarter-turn staircase only slightly blocks the hallway, since you walk directly toward a wall of the concrete staircase, and the staircase isn’t really suitable for accessibility or aging in place.
A straight staircase would visually take up less space and would allow for a future lift installation.

So, your statement @11ant basically means:
1) Either leave it as is and accept the compromise, or
2) Redesign everything so the straight staircase can fit differently?

Your rooms are completely oversized.
200m² (2,153 sq ft) is certainly large, but a guest bathroom of 9m² (97 sq ft), a kitchen of 28m² (301 sq ft), a children’s bedroom of 25m² (269 sq ft), and a main bathroom of 23m² (247 sq ft) are simply unnecessary.
When you furnish the rooms, it looks thrown together.