ᐅ New single-family home, approximately 1,940 sq ft (180 m²), for 4 occupants, without a basement, Rhineland-Palatinate region, built to KfW 55 energy efficiency standard

Hello everyone,

I have been following this forum with great interest for some time now. Finally, we are ready to start our own single-family house project. We have chosen a plot of about 610 m² (about 0.15 acres) in a newly developed area of a small town in Rhineland-Palatinate, which is currently still under development. We will be building with a general contractor (without an independent architect).

After several meetings with the planner, we have now arrived at a floor plan that fits us very well. I would like to share it here for discussion regarding any potential improvements.

The plan is for a modern gable roof house with a knee wall height of 2.0 m (6.5 feet) and a roof pitch of 20° (due to the elevation of the land and the maximum ridge height allowed), featuring clear and simple architecture. We have deliberately decided against bay windows or extensions, as these are considered relatively expensive compared to the floor space (but we are open to being convinced otherwise).

All windows and patio doors will have electric shutters. The knee wall windows are explicitly requested by my wife. The positioning and width of the windows still need to be adjusted and harmonized after the final layout of the floor plan. There will be a large built-in cupboard from a carpenter under the staircase.

Overall, we really like the plan. Our biggest concerns are the limited storage space and the combined utility/technical room.

Our questions to you:
- What do you generally think of this floor plan in relation to our requirements?
- Is the space for the utility/technical room sufficient? Do you see a possibility to have the utility room separately on the ground floor or upper floor, or to split the current utility/technical room?
- Would another staircase design be more advisable?

We are also open to completely new floor plan suggestions, although we like the current plan very much.

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

Best regards,
Manuel

Here is the questionnaire:

Development Plan / Restrictions

• Plot size: 609 m² (about 0.15 acres)
• Slope: slight slope (see site plan)
• Floor area ratio: 0.3
• Floor space index: 0.8
• Building envelope: 18 x 14 m (59 x 46 feet) (see site plan)
• Edge development: according to Rhineland-Palatinate state building code
• Parking spaces: >100 m² (1,076 sq ft) minimum of 2.5 spaces
• Number of floors: 2
• Roof type: gable roof with 20° pitch
• Style: Modern
• Orientation: see site plan
• Maximum heights / limits: 8.50 m (27.9 feet) ridge height from the nearest street level

Owners’ Requirements

• Style, roof type, building type: Modern, gable roof, clear floor plan
• Basement, floors: 1.5 floors with 2.0 m (6.5 feet) knee wall (?)
• Number and age of occupants: 3 people (33, 30, 3 years), another child planned
• Room needs on ground floor and upper floor: 2 children’s rooms, bedroom + dressing room (optional), bathroom, storage room, possibly utility room (currently planned in technical room on the ground floor)
• Office: Home office and guest room
• Guests per year: mother-in-law every 2 months for 2 nights
• Open architecture
• Modern construction method
• Open kitchen with small peninsula
• 6 dining seats
• No fireplace
• Double garage
• No productive garden, only recreational area

House Design

• Planner: Planner from a construction company
• What do you particularly like? Large living room, large bedrooms
• What do you not like? Why? Possibly too little storage? Possibly too small technical/utility room?
• Price estimate by architect/planner: €325,000 turnkey plus garage
• Personal price limit for the house including equipment: €360,000 plus garage (most furniture already owned, currently living in a 140 m² (1,507 sq ft) house)
• Preferred heating technology: air-to-water heat pump (Wolf Monoblock as main system with controlled ventilation)

If you have to give up something, which features/extensions?

• Can give up: straight staircase, large children’s rooms (but at least 15 m² (161 sq ft) each), dressing room (but wardrobe space ≥ 4.0 m (13 feet))
• Cannot give up: office, large living room, storage space (attic estimated to have only about 1.5 m (5 feet) height in the center), access from garage to house

Why is the design like it is? For example:

• Based on a show house by Weiss-Fertighaus (Mannheim, 186 m² (2,003 sq ft)), because we liked that design very much from the start and it meets our requirements closely.

You probably don’t need this room size for technical equipment. I find the garage-to-house access very awkward, as it feels like walking through a maze to get into the house. In general, I think this type of entrance is overrated.

On the ground floor, I would have a shower room/WC. The hallway (where a lot of space is lost) seems far too long to me—I expect you’ll read various opinions about this here; also about the somewhat cramped feeling of the kitchen.

I don’t like the bathroom layout on the upper floor; the toilet shouldn’t be tucked away in the corner but rather closer to the window. The “T” shape might not be the best option here. I also wouldn’t choose a corner bathtub.

With more information here, it will definitely become a nice house if you approach the project openly.

Garage access wouldn’t be my preference, but that’s a matter of taste.
The hallway will be quite dark and its shape is unfortunate. Such a narrow corridor (the same applies upstairs) can feel very oppressive.
Whether you’ll enjoy working in such a small kitchen without a nearby pantry is questionable.
For the bathroom, I would swap the shower and toilet. Personally, when using the toilet, I prefer facing an open space rather than a wall.
Also, I would always design MY house so that the bedroom is closest to the bathroom. After all, you’ll be living there for decades, while the children grow up and move out much faster than you realize.

Thanks for your feedback,

Garage access is definitely desired—not necessarily through the utility room, but it would certainly be practical for us (think: mudroom, access to the garden area, etc.).

For our needs, the kitchen at just under 10 square meters (about 108 square feet) doesn’t feel too small or cramped. Please disregard the furniture shown in the plan; we are planning an L-shaped layout along the walls with a small island by the window. Storage space will be roughly twice as much as in our current kitchen. We don’t store large quantities of supplies, so a floor-to-ceiling cabinet will be sufficient for everything (grocery stores are about a 5-minute walk away).

The bathroom layout is still completely open—thanks for the suggestions!

The hallway is actually a concern for us as well. We deliberately chose not to have a door leading to the living area and included a small window on the upper floor for natural light. The show homes we visited had quite appealing hallways, but we can’t be sure if it will look as nice here. How could the hallway be designed better? A different staircase? Another room arrangement?

We would also like to place the bedroom opposite the bathroom. It’s not yet reflected in the current design because having two equally sized children’s bedrooms also seems nice.

Do you have any specific suggestions for a better room layout or for making better use of the hallway?

Thanks in advance.

ManuHen schrieb:

The plan is for a modern gable roof house with a 2.0m (6 ft 7 in) knee wall and a 20° roof pitch [...] We have deliberately avoided bay windows/extensions, etc., as these tend to be relatively expensive in relation to the floor area [...] The knee wall windows are explicitly requested by my wife.

I have seen far worse "translations" from general contractors. The Weiss show home in Mannheim at least has a different ridge orientation in the original. The knee wall windows are basically consistent with the heights — however, I’m not sure if the fall protection will work out properly with the window height (it might be necessary to have the windows only tilt open for cleaning). In general, a straight flight staircase can be tricky, but here it seems manageable to me.

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I often think about when the children are older and have guests late in the evening or at night, and you have to quietly pass by two children’s bedroom doors to get to the bathroom. For this reason, among others, we planned a separate master bathroom, so you can access the bathroom and return to the bedroom at any time, no matter what you’re wearing, without being disturbed. With an open hallway/living area, it might be worth considering whether you might have a pet later that perhaps shouldn’t always be in the living area.

Best regards
Sabine