ᐅ House Floor Plan with a Separate Apartment – Suggestions for Improvement?
Created on: 31 Aug 2022 12:31
M
MarlenP
Hello everyone,
we plan to build a house with two residential units on a 472m2 (5,079 sq ft) plot of land (Unit 1: 143.39m2 (1,543 sq ft) / Unit 2: 69.57m2 (749 sq ft)).
The second unit is intended for my parents, while the main unit is for my family, which includes my spouse and three children (ages 7, 13, and 17).
Since our plot is relatively small, we want to build a compact house to maximize the garden space.
We are currently in the final planning stage and would appreciate your feedback on our project.
We have a feeling that we might have overlooked some important aspects or not paid enough attention to certain details because our planning focus was mainly on the compactness of the house.
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 472m2 (5,079 sq ft)
Slope: no
Site coverage ratio: 0.4
Floor area ratio: 0.6
Building envelope, building line, and boundary
Perimeter development: south and east
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 2
Roof type: hipped roof
Architectural style:
Orientation: south/west
Maximum heights / limits: 10m (33 ft)
Additional requirements
Client Requirements
Architectural style, roof type, building type: urban villa
Basement, number of storeys: no basement
Number of occupants and ages: Unit 1 – 5 people (ages 43, 38, 17, 13, 7); Unit 2 – 2 people, both over 60
Space needs on ground floor / upper floor:
Office: family use or home office? -
Number of guest stays per year: 2-3 times per year
Open or closed layout: open
Traditional or modern build style: modern
Open kitchen, with or without island: open kitchen, no island
Number of dining seats: 5
Fireplace: no
Music / stereo wall: no
Balcony or roof terrace: no
Garage or carport: garage
Utility garden, greenhouse: no
Other wishes / special features / daily routines, also reasons why certain features are included or excluded
The house should be compact but still feel spacious.
House Design
Planning by:
- planner from a construction company
- architect: by the architect
- do-it-yourself
What do you particularly like? Why? It is a relatively small house with two residential units.
What do you dislike? Why? Maybe some rooms (children’s rooms and the rooms in the secondary unit) are too small?
Price estimate according to architect/planner: approx. 600,000€
Personal budget limit for house including fittings: 650,000€
Preferred heating system: district heating
If you had to give up something, which details or expansions
- could you do without: basically nothing – we have already minimized everything.
- could you not do without: the planned number of rooms
Why did the design end up like it is? For example:
Standard design from the planner?
Which wishes were implemented by the architect? Yes
A mix of many examples from various magazines…
What makes it particularly good or bad in your opinion?
What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
We wanted the house to be as compact as possible. Maybe we focused too much on compactness and neglected other important aspects.
What do you like about the house, what do you not like so much, and what would be unacceptable?
we plan to build a house with two residential units on a 472m2 (5,079 sq ft) plot of land (Unit 1: 143.39m2 (1,543 sq ft) / Unit 2: 69.57m2 (749 sq ft)).
The second unit is intended for my parents, while the main unit is for my family, which includes my spouse and three children (ages 7, 13, and 17).
Since our plot is relatively small, we want to build a compact house to maximize the garden space.
We are currently in the final planning stage and would appreciate your feedback on our project.
We have a feeling that we might have overlooked some important aspects or not paid enough attention to certain details because our planning focus was mainly on the compactness of the house.
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 472m2 (5,079 sq ft)
Slope: no
Site coverage ratio: 0.4
Floor area ratio: 0.6
Building envelope, building line, and boundary
Perimeter development: south and east
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 2
Roof type: hipped roof
Architectural style:
Orientation: south/west
Maximum heights / limits: 10m (33 ft)
Additional requirements
Client Requirements
Architectural style, roof type, building type: urban villa
Basement, number of storeys: no basement
Number of occupants and ages: Unit 1 – 5 people (ages 43, 38, 17, 13, 7); Unit 2 – 2 people, both over 60
Space needs on ground floor / upper floor:
Office: family use or home office? -
Number of guest stays per year: 2-3 times per year
Open or closed layout: open
Traditional or modern build style: modern
Open kitchen, with or without island: open kitchen, no island
Number of dining seats: 5
Fireplace: no
Music / stereo wall: no
Balcony or roof terrace: no
Garage or carport: garage
Utility garden, greenhouse: no
Other wishes / special features / daily routines, also reasons why certain features are included or excluded
The house should be compact but still feel spacious.
House Design
Planning by:
- planner from a construction company
- architect: by the architect
- do-it-yourself
What do you particularly like? Why? It is a relatively small house with two residential units.
What do you dislike? Why? Maybe some rooms (children’s rooms and the rooms in the secondary unit) are too small?
Price estimate according to architect/planner: approx. 600,000€
Personal budget limit for house including fittings: 650,000€
Preferred heating system: district heating
If you had to give up something, which details or expansions
- could you do without: basically nothing – we have already minimized everything.
- could you not do without: the planned number of rooms
Why did the design end up like it is? For example:
Standard design from the planner?
Which wishes were implemented by the architect? Yes
A mix of many examples from various magazines…
What makes it particularly good or bad in your opinion?
What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
We wanted the house to be as compact as possible. Maybe we focused too much on compactness and neglected other important aspects.
What do you like about the house, what do you not like so much, and what would be unacceptable?
K a t j a schrieb:
Well, the children are 17, 13, and 7 years old. Apart from the little one, I think you can expect a certain level of pain tolerance from the other two.??? – the parents of Claudia-Maren were meant.https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
11ant schrieb:
??? - It was meant to refer to Claudia-Maren’s parents.Huh? The point is that three elementary school children would definitely create a mess in the cloakroom that Grandma and Grandpa might find overwhelming. But at 17 and 13 years old, the two older kids can surely manage to hang up their jackets properly and put their backpacks in the closet.
MarlenP schrieb:
Since it concerns our own family, the shared hallway doesn’t bother the parents. It’s not ideal, but we have to be willing to compromise here. Aha, it doesn’t bother the parents, but you do… yet you would accept the compromise. But actually not…?!
MarlenP schrieb:
That would probably mean 1 or 2 children’s bedrooms would have to be in the attic. No. The house will remain roughly the same size because the space requirements don’t change.
MarlenP schrieb:
The student plans to stay in town after finishing university (also has a job prospect lined up). MarlenP schrieb:
But it’s exhausting to speculate about what will happen in 10-15 years. It doesn’t matter what happens in 10-15 years. True. But as the planner, you need to know whether the student will stay at home (for whatever reasons), or if it can be encouraged that they look for their own place. Sorry, but the key issue here is a room that is somehow too large for a senior apartment and doesn’t really belong to you.
S
Sunshine3875 Sep 2022 22:32To be honest, there are quite a few "ifs" involved. If I were you, I would either plan a nice granny flat for the elderly family members and more space for your own apartment, rather than prematurely accommodating someone who might want to live somewhere else after graduating. If that does turn out to be the case, I have a simple idea to suggest. You could place the seniors’ apartment and the student’s one-bedroom unit on the first floor, arranged in a way that the space can easily be converted into a four-room apartment. Then, the spacious apartment would be on the ground floor for you. Although this wouldn’t be fully accessible, I know many people who still manage to live on the first floor at an advanced age (sometimes with the help of a stairlift). If this is possible, I would consider it a suitable option. Essentially, this would be a classic two-family house with identical layouts on both floors, but with the option to separate the units. A house with two four-room apartments is also easier to sell later on, unlike your original idea, which is unfortunately much harder to sell.
Basically, the original poster wants two houses for the price of one. In my opinion, that’s the main issue where the project is currently failing.
Well then, make a buildable proposal with four bedrooms, living room, kitchen, dining area, utility room, staircase, bathroom, guest toilet, plus two parking spaces and a terrace, all on this plot in one level. I’m curious.
That’s not to say it’s impossible, I just find it challenging.
Sunshine387 schrieb:
To be honest, there are quite a few “ifs” here. If I were you, I would either plan a nice granny flat for the seniors and more space for your own apartment instead of rushing to accommodate someone who might move elsewhere after finishing their studies. And if that does turn out to be the case, here’s a simple idea: place the seniors’ apartment and the student’s one-bedroom flat both on the first floor, but in a way that the apartment can easily be converted into a four-room flat. Downstairs could then be a spacious apartment for you. It’s not barrier-free, but I know many elderly people who still manage to get upstairs (sometimes using a stairlift). If that’s possible, I would plan this as a suitable option. That way, in principle, you have a classic two-family house with identical floor plans on both levels, just with the option to separate part of the living space.
Well then, make a buildable proposal with four bedrooms, living room, kitchen, dining area, utility room, staircase, bathroom, guest toilet, plus two parking spaces and a terrace, all on this plot in one level. I’m curious.
That’s not to say it’s impossible, I just find it challenging.
S
Sunshine3875 Sep 2022 23:17Of course, this is really difficult, I admit that. Here is my suggestion. Yes, there is a room missing downstairs, but you could sacrifice the kitchen to create an additional room there. Then you would still have only about 33 m2 (355 sq ft) of living/cooking space like upstairs, but that might just be enough. Or two children could share a room, or the eldest could move upstairs into the student apartment and the student would get a tiny house in the garden. That’s pretty cool too, right? Of course, this is not meant seriously. Maybe it inspires a new good idea for you now.
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