ᐅ Floor plan of a traditional single-family house on a 700 sqm plot with east-facing access
Created on: 5 Oct 2021 00:20
M
Mitch404
Hey everyone,
many of you probably know this situation: suddenly there are three of you, and you realize that your current apartment will soon be too small. My wife and I have therefore decided to treat ourselves to a single-family home. We are currently working with the architect we chose to develop the floor plan.
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 700 sqm (7,535 sq ft)
No slope
Site occupancy ratio (building coverage ratio): 0.3
Floor area ratio: 0.6
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 2 full stories; with two full stories, a knee wall is not allowed
Roof style: Gable roof
Client Requirements
Style, roof type, building type: The roof style is fixed as a gable roof. The house should also blend in with neighboring buildings, so a more rectangular than square (town villa) footprint is preferred.
Basement, floors: No basement and no sloping ceilings desired; therefore, two full stories
Number of residents, ages: 3 people aged 35, 30, and 0.3 years; space for an additional child desired
Room requirements on ground floor and upper floor: Typical needs of a family with two children and no special hobbies. A sufficiently sized utility room to be able to hang laundry indoors in winter. Kitchen large enough to comfortably bake a cake occasionally (currently only a 6 sqm (65 sq ft) kitchen, which is rather tight). We had also considered a home office on the ground floor to avoid guests needing to enter the upper floor, but overall that made the ground floor feel too large.
Office: The office is for home office use, designed for two workstations (usually not used at the same time) and with the possibility to accommodate occasional overnight guests.
Overnight guests per year: None regularly. If our parents or friends want to stay over, we want to have the option to use the office space for this.
Open or closed architecture: We think open layouts look nice, but in everyday life we want practicality, which includes being able to retreat occasionally. Therefore, a large living/dining area with a kitchen that can be at least partially integrated via a large sliding door, while the rest remains rather closed off.
Conservative or modern construction: Modern construction as far as we like it (for example, an open staircase in the living area is currently trendy but we do not like it, and for the “T” layout solution, we find our bathroom too small and cramped).
Open kitchen, kitchen island: The kitchen should not be fully open but with a large sliding door. A kitchen island and dining area directly in the kitchen would be nice.
Number of dining seats: 8+
Fireplace: No fireplace
Music/surround sound wall: Not desired. Besides the TV, a 2.1 sound system will be installed as now, and that’s enough.
Balcony, roof terrace: Not desired
Garage, carport: Carport
Utility garden, greenhouse: We plan a small utility garden — a few raised beds, maybe 1-2 regular beds — but the focus will be a low-maintenance recreational and leisure garden.
Additional wishes / special features / daily routine, also reasons why some things are desired or not: Each children’s bedroom has an attic ladder leading upward, so the rooms can be expanded upstairs when the kids are teenagers and want more space. We have seen this realized in 2-3 houses and think it’s pretty cool.
House Design
Who designed the plan: Independent architect
What do you especially like? Why? The southwest garden protected from the street. The living room, which is open yet still brings some calm due to the niche and the door that only leads into the dining area. The kitchen has a terrace door that can be unlocked from outside, so groceries can be carried straight into the kitchen. The walk-in closet, which adds visual calmness to the bedroom. Storage space under the stairs. The separation of the technical room and the utility room, allowing the utility room to be kept tidier.
What do you not like? Why? I worry that the bathroom on the ground floor and the office might be somewhat too small. The children’s rooms seem fairly generous with 17 sqm (183 sq ft); 16 sqm (172 sq ft) might have sufficed.
Price estimate according to architect/planner: The architect is handling only phases 1-4 for us. We have not yet decided whether to hire a general contractor or use individual contracts and arrange construction supervision ourselves.
Personal budget limit for the house, including fixtures and fittings: 500k
Preferred heating system: Ground-source heat pump with horizontal trench collector
If you had to give up something, which details/upgrades
- can you do without: We have already dropped the basement and fireplace; we will probably also give up on the “T” layout in the bathroom to avoid making it too dark and cramped.
- cannot do without:
Why is the design the way it is now? For example:
Standard design from the planner? The plan was created individually based on a questionnaire we completed for the architect.
Which requests were implemented by the architect?
- Carport and shed cover the neighbor’s unsightly prefabricated garage.
- House and carport form a kind of L shape lying down that creates a protected southwest garden.
- Two children’s rooms with at least 15 sqm (161 sq ft) + office
- Kitchen separated from the living/dining area by sliding door
- Long-term option to convert the upper floor into a separate living unit (for flexibility and eligibility for KfW funding for two dwelling units)
What do you think makes the plan particularly good or bad?
Overall, we quite like the plan. We now want to look at details (for example, the walk-in closet slightly larger by about 1 sqm (11 sq ft) so that a low cabinet could fit against the second wall). The windows are not planned yet and were initially placed arbitrarily by the architect.
We are especially looking forward to your open feedback to optimize the plan further before it gets serious and hopefully avoid some mistakes. 😉
Best regards
Mitch404
many of you probably know this situation: suddenly there are three of you, and you realize that your current apartment will soon be too small. My wife and I have therefore decided to treat ourselves to a single-family home. We are currently working with the architect we chose to develop the floor plan.
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 700 sqm (7,535 sq ft)
No slope
Site occupancy ratio (building coverage ratio): 0.3
Floor area ratio: 0.6
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 2 full stories; with two full stories, a knee wall is not allowed
Roof style: Gable roof
Client Requirements
Style, roof type, building type: The roof style is fixed as a gable roof. The house should also blend in with neighboring buildings, so a more rectangular than square (town villa) footprint is preferred.
Basement, floors: No basement and no sloping ceilings desired; therefore, two full stories
Number of residents, ages: 3 people aged 35, 30, and 0.3 years; space for an additional child desired
Room requirements on ground floor and upper floor: Typical needs of a family with two children and no special hobbies. A sufficiently sized utility room to be able to hang laundry indoors in winter. Kitchen large enough to comfortably bake a cake occasionally (currently only a 6 sqm (65 sq ft) kitchen, which is rather tight). We had also considered a home office on the ground floor to avoid guests needing to enter the upper floor, but overall that made the ground floor feel too large.
Office: The office is for home office use, designed for two workstations (usually not used at the same time) and with the possibility to accommodate occasional overnight guests.
Overnight guests per year: None regularly. If our parents or friends want to stay over, we want to have the option to use the office space for this.
Open or closed architecture: We think open layouts look nice, but in everyday life we want practicality, which includes being able to retreat occasionally. Therefore, a large living/dining area with a kitchen that can be at least partially integrated via a large sliding door, while the rest remains rather closed off.
Conservative or modern construction: Modern construction as far as we like it (for example, an open staircase in the living area is currently trendy but we do not like it, and for the “T” layout solution, we find our bathroom too small and cramped).
Open kitchen, kitchen island: The kitchen should not be fully open but with a large sliding door. A kitchen island and dining area directly in the kitchen would be nice.
Number of dining seats: 8+
Fireplace: No fireplace
Music/surround sound wall: Not desired. Besides the TV, a 2.1 sound system will be installed as now, and that’s enough.
Balcony, roof terrace: Not desired
Garage, carport: Carport
Utility garden, greenhouse: We plan a small utility garden — a few raised beds, maybe 1-2 regular beds — but the focus will be a low-maintenance recreational and leisure garden.
Additional wishes / special features / daily routine, also reasons why some things are desired or not: Each children’s bedroom has an attic ladder leading upward, so the rooms can be expanded upstairs when the kids are teenagers and want more space. We have seen this realized in 2-3 houses and think it’s pretty cool.
House Design
Who designed the plan: Independent architect
What do you especially like? Why? The southwest garden protected from the street. The living room, which is open yet still brings some calm due to the niche and the door that only leads into the dining area. The kitchen has a terrace door that can be unlocked from outside, so groceries can be carried straight into the kitchen. The walk-in closet, which adds visual calmness to the bedroom. Storage space under the stairs. The separation of the technical room and the utility room, allowing the utility room to be kept tidier.
What do you not like? Why? I worry that the bathroom on the ground floor and the office might be somewhat too small. The children’s rooms seem fairly generous with 17 sqm (183 sq ft); 16 sqm (172 sq ft) might have sufficed.
Price estimate according to architect/planner: The architect is handling only phases 1-4 for us. We have not yet decided whether to hire a general contractor or use individual contracts and arrange construction supervision ourselves.
Personal budget limit for the house, including fixtures and fittings: 500k
Preferred heating system: Ground-source heat pump with horizontal trench collector
If you had to give up something, which details/upgrades
- can you do without: We have already dropped the basement and fireplace; we will probably also give up on the “T” layout in the bathroom to avoid making it too dark and cramped.
- cannot do without:
Why is the design the way it is now? For example:
Standard design from the planner? The plan was created individually based on a questionnaire we completed for the architect.
Which requests were implemented by the architect?
- Carport and shed cover the neighbor’s unsightly prefabricated garage.
- House and carport form a kind of L shape lying down that creates a protected southwest garden.
- Two children’s rooms with at least 15 sqm (161 sq ft) + office
- Kitchen separated from the living/dining area by sliding door
- Long-term option to convert the upper floor into a separate living unit (for flexibility and eligibility for KfW funding for two dwelling units)
What do you think makes the plan particularly good or bad?
Overall, we quite like the plan. We now want to look at details (for example, the walk-in closet slightly larger by about 1 sqm (11 sq ft) so that a low cabinet could fit against the second wall). The windows are not planned yet and were initially placed arbitrarily by the architect.
We are especially looking forward to your open feedback to optimize the plan further before it gets serious and hopefully avoid some mistakes. 😉
Best regards
Mitch404
G
GeradeSchräg5 Oct 2021 16:20Mitch404 schrieb:
Each children's bedroom has an attic ladder leading up, so the rooms can be expanded upward when the kids are teenagers and need more space. We've implemented this in 2-3 houses we’ve seen and think it’s a pretty cool idea. What pitch is planned for the roof? Have you calculated how much usable space will be left? The width of 8m (26 feet) doesn’t help much either.
Why only 8m (26 feet) wide? Are there specific reasons for that? What did the architect say about it, or was it their idea?
11ant schrieb:
Oh, mom not consistent about taking off shoes? – I thought dirtiness was a male characteristic ;-) In my experience, starting with shared flats during university, men have always been the tidier ones. It might be an efficiency thing to reduce cleaning effort 😀
Snowy36 schrieb:
We have the ground floor arranged similarly in general, just with a basement….
You just need to be aware that the dining room will be brighter and more frequently used than the living room… we wanted it that way because we rarely use the living room except for watching TV…
If you want to keep the ground floor layout like that, I can give you a few tips. For example, you should definitely include glass panels in the front door or add a glass element next to it, otherwise the hallway will be too dark.
Is the kitchen really going to be furnished like that? Thanks for the feedback!
I feel the same way. The living room is the quiet TV corner; I want low traffic there and no harsh south-facing sunlight.
Good point about the light in the hallway. Glass elements in the door and also a glass door to the dining room are planned. I’ve even thought about a skylight at the end of the hallway near the living room, but I’m still not convinced about that.
The kitchen won’t be furnished exactly like that. So far, we only know that we want a sliding door, preferably a small cooking island with seating, and a patio door that can be locked from the outside. A side-by-side refrigerator will also be included. The rest is still completely open and unplanned.
ypg schrieb:
I would extend the planned living room separation further toward the chill-out area, making the dining area larger (at 2.76 m (9 feet) it’s too narrow when the dining table is in use, and the bench becomes hardly accessible) and have a clear view from the hallway end to the open entrance of the dining area.
If you see that as positive, then that’s fine. After all, it’s your house.
I don’t like the kitchen at all. It’s a classic closed design and also very dark. The kitchen lacks windows and natural light. A view of the garden and greenery with a countertop in front of the window would allow you to keep an eye on the child. I also don’t see the desired large sliding door. I’ve already said something about the dining area. You might want to consider closing off the living room and creating an open-plan large kitchen with dining area instead.
Moving the staircase further forward toward the entrance would also have advantages, as it could shorten the long hallway and convert the gained square meters into a living space.Thanks for the feedback! 🙂I actually prefer not to have a direct view into the living area, so our tastes just differ there. ^^
You’re right about the bench—it does make the space too narrow. We’ll probably move the bench to the west side.
We initially considered an open kitchen with dining area but consciously decided to separate the kitchen, so that one of us can work inside with the door closed without disturbing the rest of the ground floor.
Moving the staircase forward is definitely interesting, but it would complicate having two separate living units. Although, the current plan doesn’t really allow that anyway since the bathroom on the ground floor is still positioned incorrectly. I only realized thanks to this thread Oo.
Windows haven’t been planned yet, as mentioned. For the kitchen, having a lockable terrace door was a priority at first. But if we proceed with this plan, we’ll of course add more windows (bands) there.
driver55 schrieb:
Including an 8 m (26 ft) long hallway in a new build is a no-go, terrible or whatever you want to call it. I’m happy to save myself the 8m² (86 sq ft) hallway and use the space differently.
Do you have any ideas how? 🙂
Tom1978 schrieb:
If it bothers someone to see a wall at the end of the hallway, they can hang a large mirror on that wall. If it bothers someone to see themselves, then there’s not much you can do about that 🙂 My wife actually wants to put a mirror there, and I don’t mind at all—I have no personal stake in it. ^^
Similar topics