ᐅ Floor Plan for a Single-Family Home on the Edge of a Forest

Hello,

we have purchased a plot of land that is an infill lot within a residential area from the 1990s. It is a corner lot with forest on two sides. We now want to build a single-family house.

Development plan/restrictions
Plot size: 1022 sqm (around 11,000 sq ft)
Slope: slight fall towards the street
Floor area ratio (FAR): 0.3
Site coverage ratio: 0.3
Building envelope, building line, and boundary
Edge development: no
Number of parking spaces: 1
Number of floors: 1
Roof type: gable roof, 35° pitch
Architectural style: brick veneer
Orientation: street on the south side
Maximum height/limits: 4 m (13 ft) eaves height
Other specifications:
-

Client requirements
Architectural style, roof type, building type: solid construction without basement
Basement: no; floors: ground floor or attic
Number and age of occupants: 2 adults; 28 years, 29 years, 1 child planned
Space requirements on ground floor: open living-dining area, study, utility room, pantry, shower toilet
Upper floor: master bedroom plus walk-in closet, 1 children’s room, bathroom with tub and shower and double sinks, second office
Office use: family use or home office? Home office, two needed
Number of guest sleepers per year: 1-2
Open or closed layout: open
Conservative or modern construction: modern
Open kitchen, kitchen island: yes, island
Number of dining seats: 6
Fireplace: no
Music/stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: double garage with storage room
Vegetable garden, greenhouse: maybe
Other wishes/particular needs/daily routine, including reasons why some features are included or excluded

House design
Who designed it: designed by me using SweetHome 3D and discussed and costed with the general contractor
What do you like most? Why? The gallery and the cloakroom with a passage to the garage
What do you dislike? Why? Storage space might be tight, utility room possibly too small
Cost estimate according to architect/planner: not yet known, approx. 430,000 EUR
Personal budget limit for house including fittings: -
Preferred heating system: air-to-water heat pump

If you have to give up certain details/finishes,
- what can you do without: KfW 55 standard, towel radiator in the bathroom, kitchen island, if well justified: good question
- what you cannot do without: the open gallery must remain

Why is the design as it is now? e.g.

What do you think makes it particularly good or bad? We like the layout, maybe the walk-in closet needs to be swapped depending on the knee wall height

What is the most important/fundamental question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
We have a lot of light in the living room from the conservatory and high ceiling heights. Naturally, some space is lost by the design, but we accept that consciously.

All your auxiliary rooms are far too narrow and therefore not usable. Have you looked at floor plans from prefabricated house manufacturers beforehand? That helps to get a sense of space if you don't have personal experience living in houses (with children).

For example, your cloakroom from the garage is just a dark passage with no natural light, where you can't store anything due to the doors and narrow shape.

And with about 220 sqm (2,368 sq ft) of space, the budget is probably too tight as well.

Stairs too short
Budget does not fit
Many corridors that are hardly furnishable.

Draw the existing or desired furniture to scale in every room.

By the way, I don’t see a single-story building; I see two stories, or is the 2 m (6.6 ft) line missing?

“Rectangle fetishist”? 😀
Sorry, but you are completely off track here. It’s hard to even know where to begin.
- Exterior walls?
- Furnishing?
- Dark wardrobe
- Staircase way too short
- Two “warts” on the house?
- Void space that just wastes room and costs money
- …
- Square meters and budget don’t match

And immediately consider changing the general contractor if they discuss plans like this with you!

(I’m going offline now, need to repair the electric roller shutter in the living room before Christmas Eve…) 😉

Instead of planning the utility room 2 and the cloakroom separately, I would, for example, remove the dividing wall and create a "mudroom" if it has to be the passage to the garage. This way, you can also bring in a case of beer or large suitcases easily.

Furnish the entire area with realistic sizes and clearance spaces. Then you will see why the floor plan can’t work as it is.

Consider how daily routines flow. And if you currently live in a small apartment and therefore think it will fit and doesn’t need to be bigger—since you don’t have that much now anyway—then take a look at other people’s houses and see why you actually need SPACE in the utility rooms.

As already mentioned, include the furniture in the floor plan as well. And especially the windows?
Where is north?
A site plan of the plot and the planned positioning of the house on the plot would also be helpful.