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
Created on: 29 Jul 2020 11:03
M
ManuHen
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
Owners’ Requirements
House Design
If you have to give up something, which features/extensions?
Why is the design like it is? For example:
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.
Curly schrieb:
The hallway doesn't have to be dark; there are also doors with glazing.
Best regards,
SabineI wanted to mention this earlier: you can fit glass into your front door, and you have enough width to work with. Consider adding a side panel with glass as well. That could easily add another 1 meter or 1.5 meters (3.3 feet or 5 feet).
Thank you for your help.
We are now moving forward with an open living area (kitchen open to the hallway) and an airy kitchen (2.40 m (7 ft 10 in) half-island on the wall partition facing the hallway, 3.00 m (9 ft 10 in) tall cabinets on the wall facing the office).
The dressing room wall on the upper floor will be shifted slightly toward the bathroom to create more space between the wardrobes.
The door from the utility room to the garage is currently under reconsideration. We’ll see.
I have a question about the location of the utility room: currently, it is not directly against an exterior wall, meaning the connection lines run partly underneath the garage. The utility providers seem to be okay with this. Do you see any issues with that?
We are now moving forward with an open living area (kitchen open to the hallway) and an airy kitchen (2.40 m (7 ft 10 in) half-island on the wall partition facing the hallway, 3.00 m (9 ft 10 in) tall cabinets on the wall facing the office).
The dressing room wall on the upper floor will be shifted slightly toward the bathroom to create more space between the wardrobes.
The door from the utility room to the garage is currently under reconsideration. We’ll see.
I have a question about the location of the utility room: currently, it is not directly against an exterior wall, meaning the connection lines run partly underneath the garage. The utility providers seem to be okay with this. Do you see any issues with that?
Regarding noise disturbance: We have a bungalow, so the kids are close to the living room. Our layout is very open, but we still installed a door leading to the hallway. This door is necessary because when my husband watches TV (he has hearing difficulties), it gets loud. I barely hear it from the bedroom with the door closed. So, there are two doors in between.
If there is another floor in between, the soundproofing improves somewhat. I recommend planning a door to the hallway with a large glass panel to allow enough light in. If the hallway is shaped, for example, by a corner staircase, this is usually sufficient.
When my son is sitting on the stairs at my parents’ place and calls down to us, we quickly miss it during a normal conversation. No wall or door can withstand the intense metal music provocation from teenagers.
If there is another floor in between, the soundproofing improves somewhat. I recommend planning a door to the hallway with a large glass panel to allow enough light in. If the hallway is shaped, for example, by a corner staircase, this is usually sufficient.
When my son is sitting on the stairs at my parents’ place and calls down to us, we quickly miss it during a normal conversation. No wall or door can withstand the intense metal music provocation from teenagers.
Evolith schrieb:
Regarding noise disturbance: We have a bungalow, so the kids' rooms are right next to the living room. We built very openly, but still installed a door leading to the hallway. That door is necessary because when my husband watches TV (he has difficulty hearing), it gets loud. With two doors in between, I can hardly hear it in the bedroom when the door is closed. If there is an additional floor in between, the soundproofing improves even more. I recommend planning a door to the hallway with a large glass panel to allow plenty of natural light. If the hallway is made more curved, for example by a corner staircase, that is fully sufficient. When my son is sitting upstairs on the stairs at my parents’ place calling down to us, we quickly don’t hear him during a normal conversation. No wall or door can stop the loud metal music teenagers play as a provocation. What exactly do you mean by "corner staircase"?
The staircase that turns around the corner. Um, how do I describe it? The staircase runs directly beside the front door and then turns 90 degrees after about 5 steps. This creates a rounded hallway at the top, from which all the doors lead off. My parents have their basement stairs underneath it. If those were removed, it would create a really nice large entrance hall with plenty of space for a coat rack and a cupboard.
ManuHen schrieb:
Regarding the location of the utility room, I have a question: currently, it is not directly adjacent to an exterior wall, meaning the connection lines run a bit underneath the garage. The utility providers seem okay with this. Do you see any problem with that?If the utility provider doesn’t see an issue, who else would? – by the way, I don’t mind having paving instead of a concrete floor in the garage.https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
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