ᐅ House and Floor Plan Design – Initial Architect’s Draft Available

Created on: 14 Oct 2020 18:29
P
Pinkiponk
As previously announced, our old house in Baden-Württemberg has now been sold, we have moved to the Leipzig district, and we can now focus on our new house. Due to our age, we have deliberately downsized both the lot size and the living space. We have a first architect’s draft. I have already noted a few change requests and am now looking forward to your additions, criticism, and suggestions. If further plans or similar are needed, I will gladly provide them as long as I have them available.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to help me.

Development Plan / Restrictions
Lot size: 567sqm (6,105 sqft)
Slope: visually not noticeable; if this is important information, I will look for where to find it
Site occupancy index: 0.35
Floor area ratio: 0.8
Building envelope, building line, and boundary: see attached drawing
Edge development: not allowed/desired on our part
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 2
Roof type: hipped roof
Style: classic, conservative
Orientation: ?
Maximum heights/limits: “Top of raw floor slab of ground floor to ridge height of main roof max. 11.5 meters (38 feet)”; “Top of raw floor slab of ground floor to eave height of main roof max. 7.0 meters (23 feet)”
Further requirements

Client Requirements
Style, roof shape, building type: we are trying to approximate the house shown in the photo below; however, without the gable projection; classic/conservative, hipped roof, town house
Basement, floors: no basement, 2 floors
Number of occupants, age: 1 male, 64 years old – 1 female, 58 years old
Space requirements on ground floor and upper floor:
Ground floor → kitchen, shower bathroom, living/lounge room, utility room with kitchenette and floor drain, hallway;
Upper floor → bathroom with tub, bedroom, 2 “wardrobe and storage rooms”
Office: family use or home office? Couple without children, no home office
Number of overnight guests per year: 10
Open or closed architecture: open on the outside, closed on the inside
Conservative or modern construction: conservative
Open kitchen, cooking island: no, classical L-shaped kitchen or similar (the plan includes a cooking island that will not be built)
Number of dining seats: 2 in the kitchen, up to 6–8 in the living/lounge room
Fireplace: gas stove chimney
Music/stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: both no
Garage, carport: 2 arched carports
Vegetable garden, greenhouse: both no
Additional wishes/particulars/daily routine, also reasons why some things should or should not be

House Design
Who created the plan:
– Planner from a construction company: yes, in cooperation with the clients
– Architect: unclear
– Do-it-yourself: yes, in cooperation with the prefabricated house manufacturer’s planner
What do you especially like? Why? Many windows and patio doors, lots of natural light and fresh air
What do you not like? Why? The windows on the upper floor are too low in the plan, but this will be changed
Price estimate according to architect/planner: already commissioned offer/order €312,780.00 (without carport, outdoor facilities, additional construction costs, land, ...)
Personal price limit for the house including equipment: €400,000.00
Preferred heating system: gas condensing boiler plus solar thermal (according to legal requirements)

If you have to forgo something, which details/upgrades
– What you can give up: we are already giving up shutters, whirlpool
– What you cannot give up: many windows and patio doors, muntins in the windows and doors

Why is the design as it is? For example:
A mixture of many examples from various magazines…
What do you think makes it good or bad? It generally meets our wishes. On the ground floor, we want access to the garden from every room. We find symmetry more pleasing than asymmetry. Few different window and door formats. No horizontal (“lying”) windows. Each of us has a separate room for clothing and such, so that no wardrobes have to be placed in the bedroom. We do not want a separate dressing room.

What is the most important/fundamental question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
The roof seems somewhat steep to me. Is a 30-degree roof pitch for a house with a base of 9.40m x 9.40m (31 feet x 31 feet) too steep? The standard according to the provider is 22 degrees. That seemed too flat, or you can hardly see the roof.

The development plan was too large to upload; I will try again in a separate post in this thread.

Garden outlined in red in the center, forest/field on the left, street on the right, building north/south.


Two-story, light beige house with white windows and entrance, surrounded by a garden.


Floor plan of a house with terrace, garden, and carport on the lot.

Floor plan of a residence with interior layout, dimension lines, and property boundaries.

Section AA-AA of a small house with gable roof: interior rooms, stairs, windows, outdoor area.

Architectural drawing: two two-story houses with gable roofs; left with solar thermal, southwest orientation.

Architectural plan: two houses with gable roofs, north and east views, streetscape, car and people.
I
icandoit
14 Oct 2020 20:15
Why have two expensive carports? Wouldn’t it be worth considering at least a prefabricated garage? Where will you park the e-bikes?
Pinky030114 Oct 2020 20:21
And how do you get from the carports to the house?
H
hanse987
14 Oct 2020 20:22
The distance from the kitchen to the dining table is far too long for me, and to the terrace even further. The kitchen needs proper planning. Possibly swap the kitchen and living room.

The bedroom is too narrow, as there is only about 60cm (24 inches) between the wall and the bed.

Drainage for the bathroom could be challenging if the dining area is located below.

Overall, I would prefer a rectangular floor plan, and this obsession with symmetry is definitely not for me.
I
icandoit
14 Oct 2020 20:39
hanse987 schrieb:

The distance from the kitchen to the dining table seems way too far to me, and even farther to the terrace. The kitchen needs to be properly planned. Maybe swap the kitchen and the living room.
The bedroom is too narrow, as there are only about 60 cm (24 inches) between the wall and the bed.
The bathroom drainage could be tricky if the dining area is located below it.

Overall, I would prefer a rectangular floor plan, and this kind of symmetry frenzy is not my style at all.

The contract has already been awarded. Any change now will cost money.
OWLer14 Oct 2020 21:08
I don’t understand the kitchen and the living room.

Does the kitchen only have seating around the cooking island? I would have expected tall cabinets along the bottom of the plan. The sink is at the top of the plan. Is the kitchen just for cooking, meaning you have to take a long detour through the hallway to get to the dining room?

The living room seems relatively narrow. But it doesn’t have proper walls, unless you swap the suggested sofa to the bottom of the plan. If you don’t have a TV, that might be okay.
P
Pinkiponk
14 Oct 2020 21:09
11ant schrieb:

At first glance, I see a lot of inspiration from symmetry expert Shiny86 and wonder about the pitched roof with this slope.

May I start calling you the Oracle of Delphi, or wherever you live?
11ant schrieb:

Please email me that thing (classic email, not private message) in all the formats you have and planned to upload (which should also work easily with a link to the source), then we should be able to get our hands on that good piece.

I will. Thanks in advance.