ᐅ Floor plan of a new build gable roof house, 145 sqm (approx. 1,560 sq ft), 9 x 11.5 meters, shortly before submitting the building permit application.

Created on: 11 Jan 2021 16:09

Hello,

we are planning a new build on our 558 sqm (6005 sq ft) plot (new development area, neighboring buildings unknown).
Unfortunately, the plot shape is not ideal; it is trapezoidal. According to the development plan (building permit / planning permission), we have to set back 5 m (16 ft) from the street, which would leave us with a building area only 8.74 m (29 ft) wide. We have now planned a width of 9 m (30 ft) and therefore set back a total of 7.76 m (25.5 ft) from the street. We actually find this too far back, but we could not fit the floor plan otherwise.
The planned building volume is 9 x 11.5 m (30 x 38 ft). We are concerned that the hallway and kitchen might still be too narrow and long.
We would also like larger children's rooms but are unsure how to make that work.
We would appreciate ideas and suggestions for our planning as we are building for the first time and are sure we are overlooking some things.

Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 558 sqm (6005 sq ft)
Slope: none
Site coverage ratio: 0.4
Floor area ratio: 0.8
Building line and boundary: 5 m (16 ft) to the street, 3 m (10 ft) to neighbors
Edge development: garage and parking spaces
Number of parking spaces: 2 per dwelling unit
Number of floors: 1.5 stories
Roof style: gable roof
Architectural style: modern
Orientation: southeast garden, main entrance on west side
Maximum heights / limits: eaves height 5.20 m (17 ft), ridge height 9.50 m (31 ft)

Client Requirements
Basement, floors: basement, ground floor, upper floor with knee wall 1.50 m (5 ft)
Number of people, ages: two adults (37 and 31 years), two toddlers (3 and 1 years old)
Room requirements on ground floor: cloakroom, WC with shower, open kitchen-dining-living area
Room requirements on upper floor: bedroom, walk-in closet, bathroom, two children’s rooms
Room requirements in basement: utility room, storage room, fitness room (basement higher than usual), office/guest room
Office: family use or home office?: office in basement for occasional home office use
Guests per year: 1-2 (sofa bed in office)
Open or closed architecture: open
Conservative or modern design: modern
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open kitchen with island
Number of dining seats: 4-6
Fireplace: no
Music/sound wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: garage
Utility garden, greenhouse: no
Additional wishes / special features / daily routine, also reasons why some things are preferred or not:
Main entrance should face the street; entrance on north side would be possible but due to building line only 3 m (10 ft) to neighbors and in driveway to garage, all maybe a bit tight

House Design
Designer: own design, revised and drawn by general contractor
What do you particularly like? Why?: kitchen facing the street desired, open kitchen-living-dining area very much liked, large cloakroom desired, lots of window area desired, kitchen definitely with island
What do you not like? Why?: long hallway is not ideal, kitchen and hallway too narrow due to the narrow building area at the front
Price estimate by builder: 440,000 € without land and garage (fixed price), of course also without exterior work
Personal price limit for the house including fittings: 500,000 € without exterior work, land and garage
Preferred heating technology: air-to-water heat pump

If you had to give up on certain details / expansions
- can give up: fireplace, roof windows, bay windows
- cannot give up: corner glazing, wooden floors throughout except bathroom

Why did the design turn out this way?
adapted to the plot, kitchen should face the street, dining and living rooms to the garden

What is the most important / fundamental question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
Is the hallway too long and the passage by the stairs to the kitchen/dining area too narrow?
Is the kitchen and dining area too long and narrow? Is the living room too small?
The kitchen could be wider if the stair landing is omitted, but then cloakroom and WC become narrower.
Are the children’s rooms too small and is there enough window space there?

Ground plan of a plot with garage, workshop and dimension lines.

Basement floor plan with utility room, cellar, workshop, hobby cellar, KVR and stairs; measurements.

Ground floor plan of house: garage, kitchen, hallway, living/dining area and terrace.

Upper floor plan: hallway, master and children’s rooms, walk-in closet, bathroom, stairwell.

Front view of a two-story house with gable roof, windows and terrace doors.

FionaWT11 Jan 2021 17:49

Thank you very much for your detailed response!

pagoni2020 schrieb:

Maybe I would shorten the living room wall a bit

That’s exactly what we wanted to do, but according to the general contractor, it’s not possible because of the structural requirements.

pagoni2020 schrieb:

I like glass but maybe a bit more wall space here wouldn’t hurt for placing furniture/decorating.

Yes, that remains a major point of discussion; a piano is planned for the wall section between the dining room and living room, and a sideboard or similar furniture between the kitchen and dining room. But this will probably be revised again.

pagoni2020 schrieb:

The children’s rooms are definitely not too small; I think 15sqm (160 sq ft) is great. I can’t clearly see the window width.

The windows are 1.51 m (5 feet) wide and face west.

pagoni2020 schrieb:

I’m less fond of the walk-in closet; such a small room with a door feels squeezed in. I would prefer an open plan solution or simply add the space to the bedroom; then a roof window wouldn’t be needed. If I’m estimating correctly, currently there is about 9 m (30 ft) of wardrobe space planned between the bedroom and walk-in closet?

The walk-in closet has sloped ceilings, so it’s not possible to use the entire space for built-in wardrobes. Also, it’s not meant to be purely a walk-in closet but also a storage and laundry room (for example, vacuum cleaner, laundry – laundry won’t be kept in the bathroom but in this room), as well as for clothes that aren’t used regularly (ski gear, clothes to keep for kids) and bed linens. Since we have very different work schedules, we didn’t want a direct connection to the bedroom, so work clothes will also be stored there.

FionaWT11 Jan 2021 18:05

Climbee schrieb:

I can’t fully share the enthusiasm.

If you don’t want to build too far from the street, I would deliberately plan a narrower house—but longer instead. There are some really good examples of this. However, the layout won’t follow the usual standard like the house you’re currently planning. You should consider whether this might suit you.
I remember a dream house (BR Fernsehen, probably still available in the media library) where a very narrow house was planned on a plot in Munich. If I recall correctly, the house was only 6m (20 feet) wide but very cleverly designed. Definitely worth checking out! The BR website usually also provides the floor plans of the featured houses.

Another option would be to design a narrow building at the front and then widen the house on one side at the back, so the footprint forms a slight L shape.

I will never understand why someone wants to build a basic standard house that fits a classic rectangular plot but doesn’t suit an unusually shaped plot—and then wonders why the design only turns out so-so and doesn’t really fit.

If I’m seeing this correctly, the master bedroom is on the south side, but child 1’s room is in the northwest. I never find that ideal. You could swap them.
The two angled doors are a relic from the 1980s (that was stylish back then!), but I don’t see a good architectural reason for this here.
The doors are planned to be 76cm (bathroom) and 88cm (bedroom) wide but 217cm tall—is that really what you want? Those are tiny slots. I would always plan at least 1 meter (3 feet 3 inches) width for a door. Otherwise, their height looks somehow disproportionate.
The walk-in closet also doesn’t make sense like this. Please note: overall, you’re allotting more than 21sqm (226 sq ft) for bedroom and closet, but the bedroom is, in my opinion, too large—it’s only used for sleeping. The closet becomes tight, and then there’s an additional wardrobe in the bedroom, which is a complete planning error.
If you want to keep the exterior shell as it is, put the bedroom where child 1’s room is, the walk-in closet in front of it, accessed through the closet. Smaller bedroom area, larger closet area, and all wardrobes inside the closet.

Why is the garage set back so far? Do you really enjoy shoveling snow in winter? If the building plans don’t prohibit it, I’d move it forward and rather create a parking space in front of the house (you’ll have to be 5m (16 feet) from the street anyway).
Are you allowed to place a parking space in front of the garage? That wouldn’t be permitted here—every parking space (garage or driveway) must be freely accessible. Tandem parking isn’t allowed. Not all municipalities require this, but you should check first.

Kitchen facing the street: why? I’ve always preferred the kitchen near the terrace—it makes more sense to me.

Thank you very much for the tips!

Swapping the children’s room and the master bedroom is an option, but I didn’t want a children’s room adjacent to the bathroom to avoid noise disturbance.

There is a reason for the angled doors on the upper floor, but the narrow doors don’t make the design any better.
The reason is the asymmetrical staircase. This means the wall upstairs cannot be straight anymore, so the doors no longer fit properly. The asymmetrical staircase is due to the ground floor layout. We were concerned that the passage from the hallway to the kitchen-dining area would be too narrow. Therefore, the staircase going down to the basement is set back, and the staircase leading up is pushed forward. As a result, a straight wall upstairs is no longer possible here.
We will have to reconsider how to ultimately solve this.

FionaWT11 Jan 2021 18:17

Ysop*** schrieb:

I also like it. It is often recommended here to plan the kitchen next to the terrace, so to swap the living room and kitchen.

That was also the general contractor’s suggestion. However, the current kitchen—future living room—would need to be about 40 cm (16 inches) wider to achieve a comfortable distance between the sofa and the TV. The hallway is currently 1.77 m (5 feet 10 inches) wide and already feels almost too narrow because it is quite long.

11ant11 Jan 2021 19:34

#10

Rotating the house (blue) would not significantly bring it closer to the street on average, but the terrace would be oriented more advantageously, and a passage could be created next to the garage. Cutting back the corner between the kitchen and Child 2's room would make the house (green) approximately 60 cm (2 feet) narrower in that section, but it would move about 2.20 m (7 feet) closer to the street. The loss of floor space could be compensated.

Otherwise, abandoning the postless corner window design would provide considerably greater structural freedom, allowing, among other things, the recommended shortening of the walls in the living-dining-kitchen area.

I hope that no architect is this unimaginative, but rather just a building permit/planning permission drafter. Fail, six, write "There are no such merit certificates" one hundred times.

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

ypg11 Jan 2021 21:58

#11

FionaWT schrieb:

A piano will be placed on the wall section between the dining room and living room, and a sideboard or similar will go between the kitchen and dining room. However, this will probably be revised.

Then it’s best if you draw in your furniture and post it here.
I would also consider moving the windows around a bit...

FionaWT schrieb:

The shape is trapezoidal. According to the development plan, we must build back 5 m (16 feet) from the street, which would leave our building envelope only 8.74 m (29 feet) wide. We have now planned 9 m (30 feet) width and are therefore set back 7.76 m (25.5 feet) from the street in total. We actually find that too far back, but otherwise the floor plan doesn’t work.

Personally, I would have chosen a more elongated house.
Otherwise, here’s an idea to consider: move the house further back, move the garage forward to the 5 m (16 feet) building limit, place the second parking space between the garage and entrance (as it is now, it’s inconvenient and likely not allowed in some federal states), and think about a southwest-facing terrace accessible from the kitchen. I think this aspect—sitting as close as possible to the kitchen when grilling on the evening terrace—is completely ignored in this design. I would create a nice sundowner terrace facing southwest in the corner of the plot toward the street. Two chairs or a bench would be enough for you. I see the grill more logically placed next to the kitchen. Shifting the house further east would satisfy every corner of the plot and every practical human need.

FionaWT schrieb:

Kitchen and hallway are too narrow due to the narrow building envelope at the front.

If anything there is too narrow, then I must be too wide 😉
Everything is just right and where it belongs.

FionaWT schrieb:

Windows are 1.51 m (5 feet) wide and face west.

I would go with 2 m (6.5 feet). 1.50 m (5 feet) is a bit stingy, in my opinion.

FionaWT schrieb:

Storage and laundry room (e.g., vacuum cleaner, laundry should not be stored in the bathroom but in this room), and for clothes that are not used regularly (ski gear, outgrown children’s clothes) and bed linens.

Good. Otherwise, I would have criticized the lack of storage space for vacuum cleaners and similar items.

FionaWT schrieb:

Swapping the kids’ room and master bedroom would be an option, but I didn’t want a kids’ room next to the bathroom so noise wouldn’t be disturbing.

That’s not necessary since you don’t have significant windows facing south. West is good for children.

FionaWT schrieb:

Cost estimate from the construction company: €440,000 without land and without garage (fixed price).

Experience shows that a lot usually comes on top of a fixed price. For example, I noticed that the basement is a utility cellar, but you want to use at least one room for residential purposes. You should definitely clarify with the general contractor what costs that might involve. Also, a corresponding window with ground clearance and grading there would be useful.
For the other windows, be sure they don’t open into terrace areas. That would be very annoying, especially since the levels of terrace doors and basement windows aren’t necessarily aligned.
I would make the kitchen island deeper, yes, the room is large enough.
As for the bathroom… putting the doors at an angle isn’t nice. But I find the bathroom well thought-out and nicely designed.
And—oops—I just saw the big mistake 😱
The bathroom drains above the sofa!
Therefore: swap the top floor layout. Kids to the east towards the garden, bathroom and master bedroom to the west. It is as it is. The staircase should not be a problem.

pagoni202011 Jan 2021 22:17

#12

Climbee schrieb:

I can’t fully share the enthusiasm.

Well, I wouldn’t exactly call it enthusiasm, and I’ve already hinted at some changes I would make.
I usually don’t have much useful input on topics like house orientation, but I found the floor plan itself, compared to some other general contractor plans, quite successful... though still with room for improvement.

Climbee schrieb:

There are some really good examples.

Yep, basically I tend to prefer rectangular floor plans as well, not least because we will have one ourselves, and that alone should be considered a quality feature 😀

Climbee schrieb:

The two angled doors are relics from the 80s (that was trendy back then!), but I see no plausible reason for this architectural mistake here.

I don’t like them either; in the upper floor there could generally be some rearranging. I didn’t check the door widths, of course anything other than a standard width would be an unnecessary compromise.
Generally, I don’t want any windows facing the street—I want peace and quiet—but depending on the plot’s location and personal preference, having the kitchen there is okay in my opinion. However, I want it near the terrace since that’s where the grill is and I like to grill outside even in winter. In summer, I’m already outside anyway, so having the kitchen directly connected to the terrace makes sense for me. Therefore, swapping kitchen and living room could work really well, especially since the TV should be well positioned. That would probably be better there because of less sunlight glare. A living room used often as a TV room generally needs fewer windows anyway.

FionaWT schrieb:

That’s exactly what we wanted to do, but according to the general contractor it’s not possible due to structural reasons.

Is that what the GC said or the structural engineer? 😀

FionaWT schrieb:

The windows are 1.51 meters wide and face west.

…that’s enough, although there should be at least two normal window sashes, so minimum about 160–200cm (63–79 inches) wide; floor-to-ceiling windows are probably not ideal. Our guest room is 14 square meters (150 square feet) with windows about 180cm (71 inches) wide, which is sufficient.

FionaWT schrieb:

The dressing room has sloped ceilings, so you can’t use all of it for full-height wardrobes. Also, it’s not meant to be purely a dressing room but also a storage and laundry room (e.g. vacuum cleaner; laundry shouldn’t be gathered in the bathroom but in this room), and for clothes that aren’t needed all the time (ski gear, outgrown kids’ clothes) and bed linens. Since we have very different work schedules, we didn’t want a passing-through bedroom, so work clothes will also be stored there.

Right, the sloped ceilings; but that also makes the space behind the door even smaller, so it becomes more of a storage room than a dressing room. Of course, everything depends on your habits. Since I would plan the upper floor somewhat differently anyway, an open space with attractive wardrobes could be an option for me. A small cramped space behind the door wouldn’t appeal to me much. You should definitely clarify your storage needs beforehand.
My amateur advice would be: take your time and also consider a rectangular layout in parallel—that much time should be worth it...

ᐅ Floor plan of a new build gable roof house, 145 sqm (approx. 1,560 sq ft), 9 x 11.5 meters, shortly before submitting the building permit application.

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