ᐅ Floor Plan for a Single-Family House, 7 by 12 meters

Hello everyone,
we are new to the forum and just at the beginning of our building project. Maybe some of you could offer us a few tips.

The plots suitable for a single-family house are unfortunately quite small, and according to the plans, we can build on a maximum of 7 x 12 m (23 x 39 feet).

The requirements are:

Gable roof with 45° +/- 3°
Up to two floors allowed.
Maximum building height is 10 m (33 feet).
Knee wall height is not specified.

On the ground floor, we want an open layout if possible.
A straight staircase would be nice.
Upstairs, we need space for three children’s bedrooms plus a master bedroom and a bathroom.
An attic crawl space under the roof would be sufficient.

Does anyone have suggestions, experience, or feedback with this kind of project?

How many square meters (square feet) are realistically possible with these requirements when building to current energy standards in solid construction?

Thanks to everyone who takes the time to support us here.

Hello, our building plot measures 8.30 x 13 meters (27.2 x 42.7 feet) and we are now in the final phase of execution planning. We like our floor plan with 2 children's rooms, a bathroom, a study, a bedroom, and a separate utility room for the dryer and washing machine on the upper floor. The roof pitch is 30 degrees to allow standing space there, especially since we don’t have a basement. The utility room on the ground floor has been designed slightly larger.

If you are really allowed to build two full stories, I would plan for two full floors plus a finished attic; otherwise, it will be quite tight.

Hecht1983 schrieb:
Upstairs, we need space for 3 children's bedrooms plus a master bedroom and a bathroom.

Hecht1983 schrieb:
How many square meters are even possible with these requirements when building today’s energy-efficient solid construction?

About 130sqm (1400 sq ft) of living space with two floors. But of course, it depends on the actual thickness and number of walls. Generally, it might be a bit less due to the many rooms, which means more walls.

It will be quite tight upstairs with four bedrooms... they won’t be very large.

Hecht1983 schrieb:
Upstairs we need space for 3 children's bedrooms plus the master bedroom and a bathroom. An attic crawl space below the roof would be sufficient.

That doesn't fit.
3 bedrooms plus a bathroom on the upper floor – then the attic for the parents.
For 5 people, I would build with a basement or expand the attic as far and as high as possible.

Hecht1983 schrieb:
Gable roof with 45° +/- 3°
Building up to 2 stories possible.
Maximum house height 10 m (33 ft).
Knee wall height is not specified.

A roof pitch of 42° means about 3.15 m (10.3 ft) roof height, 48° means about 3.89 m (12.8 ft). With two floors at 2 x 2.85 m (2 x 9.35 ft) ceiling height, that leaves a total of 1.15 m (3.77 ft) or 0.41 m (1.35 ft) for the combined height of the knee wall and the elevation of the ground floor slab above the reference level (“+/- 0.00” as defined in the zoning plan). So, that is the maximum sum of the “knee wall” and the “plinth” height.

In my view, this likely means the building will consist of two full-height floors without roof slopes and an attic space usable as a loft.

Only one of these floors can provide a satisfactory area on the upper floor given the footprint and the ratio of narrow side to long side.

What a timber panel construction could save in wall footprint doesn’t make a decisive difference here.

I agree with the estimate by @Alex85 of about 130 sqm (about 1400 sq ft).

With these dimensions—and if a “crawl space” attic (and therefore a retractable ladder?) is sufficient at the top—I would expect the staircase to be placed perpendicular to the ridge, roughly in the middle, with two flights and a landing in between; this is basically “fixed” in terms of overall space consumption (stairs plus clearance), as a single straight stair along the ridge would not be space-efficient.

Otherwise, the floor plan will be clearly rectangular—there is little room for recesses or cutouts (what might still be possible or useful would be a trapezoidal shape if it better uses the building envelope, for example, if the plot or building envelope is not bounded by parallel lines).

---

https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/