ᐅ New single-family house construction, approximately 174 m² floor area, architectural design

Created on: 22 Nov 2019 07:51
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mini_g!
Hello everyone,

After following this forum for quite a while, our own project is becoming more concrete. We have secured a plot of land and have spoken with various general contractors and an architect. So far, my wife and I like the architect’s design best. It is still a draft plan, but it already feels very "right" for us.

Therefore, I would appreciate your feedback. Are there any critical points we might be overlooking? What could be solved more cleverly?

I hope I have included everything needed. If not, I’m happy to provide more information. Unfortunately, the basement is still the old version; it has now been mirrored and the light shafts have been slightly changed. You can see this on the ground floor plan.

Looking forward to your feedback!

Thank you very much! mini

Development plan/restrictions
Plot size: 494 m2 (approximately 5313 sq ft); about 20.5 m (67 feet) wide on the street side, 24.2 m (79.5 feet) deep
Slope: no
Site coverage ratio: 0.4
Floor area ratio: not specified
Building setback: 3 meters (10 feet) from the street, 4 meters (13 feet) from adjacent property at the back
Edge construction: no
Number of parking spaces: 1.5 per residential unit
Number of floors: max. 2
Roof type: gable roof
Architectural style: classic-modern?
Orientation: ridge runs northwest
Maximum height/restrictions: eaves height 6.5 m (21 feet), ridge height 9.5 m (31 feet)
Other requirements: various, planting obligations, infiltration etc., but nothing really unusual nowadays

Clients’ requirements
Style, roof type, building type: classic modern, gable roof

Basement, floors: 2 full stories plus basement
Number of occupants, age: 2 adults in their mid-30s, 2 children aged 2 years
Space requirements on the ground floor: cloakroom, guest WC, utility room, kitchen, living and dining area
Space requirements on the upper floor: 2 children’s rooms, parents’ room, walk-in closets, children’s bathroom, parents’ bathroom
Office: family use plus possible home office about one day every two weeks
Guest beds per year: few; about 3?
Open or closed layout: open
Conservative or modern construction method: We consider ourselves modern but want a classic building shape on the outside. So the interior is rather open and modern, the exterior has a classic form.
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open kitchen with work island
Number of dining seats: usual 4-6, for events at least 12-16 people
Fireplace: no
Media wall for music/stereo: media wall for TV and books, no stereo
Balcony, roof terrace: balcony for the children
Garage, carport: garage plus carport
Kitchen garden, greenhouse: possibly later
Other wishes/special features/daily routine, reasons why certain things should or should not be included:
- Children’s bathroom
- Balcony on garage/carport accessible for both children (for friends etc. when they are older)
- Utility room next to kitchen on ground floor
- Covered entrance
- Spacious open living and dining area
- Open attic

House design
Planner: architect

What do you like most?
Open and spacious, all our wishes were taken into account. We wanted to keep the building’s main shape as simple as possible and avoid dormers, bay windows, and setbacks.

What do you not like? Why?
Could it possibly be a bit smaller? We don’t have to fully exhaust our budget...
Estimated price according to architect/planner: approx. $600,000
Personal price limit for the house, including fittings: -
Preferred heating system: heat pump with ground collector, possibly supplemented with photovoltaic. Maybe switch to a standard air-to-water heat pump?

If you had to give up something, which details or upgrades would you cut?
Difficult, we don’t really have anything we would cut.

Why did the design turn out as it is now? For example:
We spent a long time thinking about the floor plans, looked at many houses online and from friends/family. We wrote down everything we liked and also what we didn’t want. For example, a clear design without bay windows, setbacks, or similar features was important to us. This is what we took to the builders and the architect. The result is this plan.

What is the most important/fundamental question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
Are there any optimizations in the floor plan that we may have missed? Enough windows/daylight in general?

Technical architectural drawing of a house with system section and northwest/northeast views


Floor plan of a house: cooking/living/dining, stairs, garage, carport, terrace.


Floor plan of a building: workshop, office, hallway; outdoor area with trees.


Upper floor plan: hallway, bathroom, walk-in closet, bedroom, two children’s rooms, terrace.
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User0815
25 Nov 2019 21:46
I would like to point out that the utility/technical room will be one of the warmest rooms in the house (at least in my case). Therefore, I would consider alternative storage space for food and beverages.
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kbt09
25 Nov 2019 21:49
@User0815 ... a basement is planned where the building services will be located. So the utility room will truly be a utility room.