ᐅ House Design: Urban Villa, Two Full Stories, Double Garage

11ant schrieb:

On what basis did you decide that you wanted one meter more width – without measurements, that’s just guesswork (?)

The design is at a scale of 1:100, so the dimensions can be measured accordingly.
What I meant is that so far we don’t have a design with the dimensions clearly marked.
Since our current design shows the living/dining area with a depth of about 3 m (10 feet), we initially considered adding a cube-shaped extension in the living room to reach a depth of around 4 m (13 feet). However, we decided against the cube and instead chose to extend the house by one meter (3 feet) to generally enlarge everything — both the ground floor and, of course, the upper floor.

Apologies for the imprecise details.

What do you think of the design overall? How do you find the layout? Or would you have any other suggestions?

Familie_B schrieb:

At first, we considered building a cube-shaped structure in the living room

I don’t understand a word.

Familie_B schrieb:

What do you think about the design? How do you find the layout? Or do you have other suggestions?

I recommended, not without reason, to take a look at the work of @RobsonMKK. Just search through their thread history; earlier there was “Wanderwetter,” and soon a “vränggischer Dadord” will show up – otherwise, I usually take a more submissive approach.
In my opinion, the layout can’t be discussed independently of the absolute dimensions, so I prefer to wait for the new basis for discussion. Simply adding one meter (3 feet) on the lower floor, with the “collateral damage” that the floor above will also have more space, is a mindset only affordable for very deep pockets (and by that I specifically mean the compartments for platinum credit cards).

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

Familie_B schrieb:

The plot has a width of about 24.5m (80 feet)

There is a lot of potential in the width, which is not being utilized here!

Familie_B schrieb:

Since our current design has a depth of about 3m (10 feet) for the living/dining room, we initially considered making a cube in the living room

What exactly does that mean? A cube is a 3D shape... did you want the living room’s width/height/depth to be equal? What nonsense!

From what can be seen without measurements (I would also have roughly estimated the living room depth at about 3 meters), there are two major issues here that cannot easily be fixed by a small extension: the centrally located pantry and the second hallway (passage between garage and house).
The latter is unnecessary in many designs due to the close proximity of the entrance door to the garage door, and it wastes space in both the small house and the small garage. How anyone is supposed to get past the vehicle is beyond our understanding due to missing measurements.
Why the most important area for energy efficiency in the house, namely the central point, is taken up by a storage room can only be explained if the homeowner or planner imposed strict constraints such as “kitchen window facing the street,” “living room to the rear,” and “passage to the garage.” These priorities should be reconsidered thoroughly.
At the moment, the result is a massive kitchen that would fit a country house, but it is very congested and not ergonomic. If a professional (architect) planned this, they should seriously reconsider their profession.

Familie_B schrieb:

What do you particularly like? Why? The open living space

I don’t see that here at all. Not even with a 2-meter (6.5-foot) extension. The pantry completely disrupts any generous connection.
Unfortunately, there is no independently drawn site plan including the house.
I believe that if the homeowner did their homework, they would see that this is definitely the wrong house planned for this site.
The house currently has the dimensions—and consequently all the disadvantages—of a semi-detached house: narrow hallway, non-ergonomic kitchen, too small living space, space-saving staircase...
I lean towards starting over.
(kitchen and upper floor not considered)

11ant schrieb:

On what basis did you decide that you wanted an extra meter of width – without any measurements, that’s just guesswork (?).

Why would you need a "basis" for that? It’s not guesswork but a straightforward decision. Of course, it makes sense to review the upper floor (first floor) when enlarging the floor plan and to explore new possibilities.

hampshire schrieb:

Why do you need a "base" for that?

Well, you need some factual basis to conclude that adding one more meter here would solve the problem. As a manufacturer of panel vans, you might be fine simply giving a 3.5-ton vehicle a longer wheelbase than a 2.8-ton vehicle—but when it comes to a family's house, I believe a more nuanced approach is appropriate. Simply increasing an estimated measurement taken from the floor plan scale by, say, 100 millimeters (4 inches) and assuming “that’s it” is hardly something to take seriously, is it?

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

My impression: a typical messed-up general contractor architect’s design.

The conversation went something like this:

- Hello, nice to meet you... yes, would you like some coffee, blah blah
- Individuality is important to us, blah blah, you can change anything you want
- What do you want, what’s important to you, and what’s your budget?
- Answer: we like urban villas, the husband wants a garage, but the wife wants direct access because of groceries and oh yes, a pantry as well. We need a basement because of Xyz and hobbies. Oh, and the wife absolutely wants corner windows facing the street because she saw that at a friend’s place, and upstairs two children’s rooms plus a large master bedroom and a bathroom with a bathtub. We’ve always wanted that. Yes, and we do have a budget too.

- Okay, here’s design 17b from our endless creativity—what do you think?

- Well, it’s missing the pantry and the entrance from the garage.

- That’s why you’re with us, we stand for individuality... look, we’ll just shorten the living and dining rooms a bit (he’s already thinking about the price list for enlarging or adding a bay window) and put the passage to the garage there, and yes, for the pantry we’ll just put a small square in the middle. Now everything fits, right?

- Uh, yeah.

No offense intended, this is a bit tongue-in-cheek and not meant to be harsh, but I almost hope this really happened, because hopefully nobody would come up with something like this spontaneously.

I get that the sink and stove don’t have to be right next to each other, but measure the meters... I grab something from the pantry, walk to the sink to wash it, then chop it, then move to the stove... heart rate up to 180 unless you’re training for an ultramarathon.
With 1 meter (3 feet) more, the upper floor gets even bigger or you get a different design.
I’m also inclined to recommend starting over from scratch.