ᐅ Floor Plan for a Sloped Site – Tips for Urban Villas and Bungalows

Hello,

I would like to share our planned floor plan here for some feedback.

First, a bit about the project:
Three years ago, we bought a plot of land with an old building. The site is on a hillside, south-facing, about 1000 sqm (0.25 acres). We originally planned to demolish the old building, but it turned out to be very cost-effective to make it livable, so we have been living there for two years now. (Basement with kitchen + study room with access to the terrace, ground floor with living room + bathroom + entrance at street level, upper floor bedroom, total of 60 sqm (645 sq ft) over three levels.)

Next year, we want to build a new house on the property. The old building is located at the top, with the street also at the top, and the new house will be built in front (that is, south) of the old building. Once the new house is finished, the old building will be demolished down to the basement, and garages will be built on the basement level.

The house will have two full stories. On the garden side, it should look like an urban villa, while on the street side, it will resemble a bungalow. The roof will be a hip roof. There is no development plan; it is a building-in-existing-structures situation. The planning authority agrees with the basic idea and currently sees no issues.

At street level will be the ground floor of the new house, and the garages will be located on the old building’s basement level.

I may try to post a sketch later on.

Regarding the floor plan itself:
- We are currently two people, but children are planned in the future. That’s why there are two bedrooms in the basement. For the time being, the study room and one of the bedrooms in the basement can be swapped.
- Kitchen in the basement: I prefer the stairs (for example, carrying groceries down) in order to have direct access to the terrace.
- For later in life, the basement and ground floor could be made into two separate units. The left bedroom in the basement can be fitted with an external door, and the stairs could possibly be closed off. On the ground floor, the study could be converted into a kitchen, and the living room could serve as a combined dining and living area.
- Does the walk-in closet make sense? It’s not a must-have. Since the toilet is separate, the bathroom and bedroom could be more connected, but I’m still working on ideas for that.
- Access to the toilet via the entrance area: I think having two doors to the toilet from the living area provides better privacy.
- The basement corridor might be dark, but I had something similar in the attic corridor at my parents’ house and it never bothered us. Possibly, frosted glass inserts in the doors could bring some daylight in.

Thanks for your suggestions,
Andreas

Designing houses on sloped sites is a very challenging task, but it can also lead to very appealing layouts. Here, the planning becomes even more complicated due to the later division into two separate living units.

DIY planning can only be helpful to a certain extent, mainly to clarify things for yourself, but ultimately a skilled designer must take over in collaboration with the client. The final result will then look different, which in this case is actually a good thing.

The current floor plans constantly fluctuate between wasted space and cramped areas. The lighting might be acceptable for you, but for others, it could reduce the rental value.

The cloakroom is too small for four people, leaving a maximum of 40cm (16 inches) per person—and what about guests? The living room is far too wide and serves as a circulation space, making it uncomfortable and inefficient. The bedroom-dressing room-bathroom arrangement is practical, but having the bedroom facing south is undesirable. Even with a narrow bed, the usability in old age is hardly feasible.
In the basement, the kitchen and dining area are again inefficient; meanwhile, the corridor is dark, and the children's bathroom is much too small. With an estimated width of 1.2m (4 feet) minus plaster, built-in wall elements, and the toilet, there is less than 50cm (20 inches) of space to enter the shower, leaving no room for a parent to assist.
Long, narrow rooms are always inefficient due to a high proportion of circulation areas—this applies to the utility room as well.

Overall, the outcome is quite sobering and far from realistically buildable. Your room layout also needs to be critically reconsidered. Maybe it is better after all to consult an architect directly—I once wrote something about step contracts...

WD

Thank you, just as I expected.
These are rough plans that an architect will surely need to refine, but the basic concept should remain the same.
On the ground floor, I changed the proportions of the vestibule to make room for a larger wardrobe. The walk-in closet in the bedroom has been removed, but the storage space remains almost the same, while providing significantly more freedom of movement. What’s so bad about sleeping facing south? We’ve decided to do it that way because it’s definitely nicer to look out at the landscape from the bed rather than the garage or the neighbor’s wall. And it’s certainly quieter too.
The living room stays as it is. The black unit in front of the stairs is 3 m (10 feet) wide and about 2.20 m (7 feet) high. It houses a projector screen (there is no traditional television) and a hi-fi system. On the back wall facing the stairs, there is a display cabinet.
In a previous rental apartment, we had an open living room of this size, and when playing Wii or Connect, you really need that space. One thing to reconsider might be separating the living room from the hallway, but that would affect daylight upstairs.

In the dining room and kitchen, I don’t see much wasted space. A table for 10 people simply requires that much room, and it’s not even a huge capacity—it already gets tight for birthday celebrations...
I modified the hallway to include natural light (the window could even be converted later into the front door for a second apartment). The bathroom has been moved to the corner. The utility room and adjoining space are small (compact heat pump unit on the left, washing machine on the right), but this room only needs to accommodate the heat pump and possibly the ventilation system; electrical, media, and water connections are located in the basement of the old building.

Hello ah-Hof,

Please try to imagine what it’s like when you as a couple are spending time in the living room and your children (perhaps older, teenagers or grown up) have friends over, and the group wants to go outside and then come back inside.
Or the other way around: your kids are having a DVD night and your guests, maybe enjoying a nice meal in the kitchen, have to pass by them every time to get to the guest bathroom.

Have you considered this issue before?

We also have the staircase in the living room, but no children. And if an adult child ever needs a place to retreat, they are sent to the room near the entrance, so they don’t have to pass by the TV or sofa.

I have already thought it through, entering and exiting during the teenage years – if necessary, through a secondary entrance in the basement (passing through the utility room). Guests in the dining room would probably use the bathroom on the ground floor rather than going upstairs. A separate staircase and hallways somehow disrupt the overall integrity of the house.

I’ll try again with your responses to my suggestions.

Teenagers “using the side entrance in a pinch”... Are you really designing so that half the family and their friends can use this “emergency exit” as a regular in-and-out? For lively young adults, that could easily be 3 to 5 times a day, going to their hangouts, receiving visitors... not to mention going outside to smoke at the nearest bus stop. Is this really how you want to plan it? Surely there are better solutions.

I assume that for your guests you mean a toilet in the basement instead of on the ground floor (basement / cellar, ground floor / first floor depending on region). So, who is the ground floor toilet intended for? Who will be using it?

Now, about the main issue with your floor plan: it really doesn’t work well. At least not with the entrance area combined directly with the living room and the staircase. A 4 square meter (43 square feet) hallway is far too small. Try to make it about 7 square meters (75 square feet) so there’s space for putting on jackets, even for two people at once. When hosting guests, you shouldn’t need to open the living room door to let people in.

Using the living room as a passageway is always tricky and only works satisfactorily if there is a spatial separation that distinguishes the retreat area from the traffic zone. If the staircase here is open (as I understand it), then movement in this area is simply a disturbance. The stair landing leading downstairs faces a wall — that’s not attractive!

Integrating communal rooms as part of the main traffic area—in other words, having minimal hallways—is only advisable if the rooms are only brushed past. Here, you actually have to walk through them, which can become tiresome over time.

I understand the argument to exit directly from the kitchen at ground level, but over time it will likely be inconvenient to carry groceries into the kitchen. You might have multiple bags or boxes of drinks, for example.

Perhaps consider swapping the kitchen and living room locations and create a level transition to the outside by building up the ground.

In my opinion, a townhouse-style building is the worst choice for a sloped lot. A slope offers many possibilities; of course, budget is a factor, but with such a property, you shouldn’t restrict yourself to a standard building envelope. Instead, think outside the box—this is what an architect is for.

Regards, Yvonne

PS: Constructive criticism doesn’t have to come with proposed solutions, but it can. There is no such thing as “constructive criticism” — it’s just criticism wrapped nicely. Constructive criticism should encourage the recipient to reconsider things, situations, or facts. For solutions, it’s best to consult specialists. Worse are those who don’t engage thoughtfully in the discussion but instead only fixate on the responses of interested parties — in the end, they have no imagination to implement the available criticism, let alone understand the original situation. Just a note — thanks for reading!