ᐅ New construction of a single-family house, approximately 220 sqm, second design draft of an urban villa

Hello everyone,

Since the first draft was heavily criticized here, I am trying again with a second draft featuring a slightly different layout but otherwise the same requirements. The plan is still to live in the house for about 15 to 20 years and then sell it.
So, let's go!

Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 620 m² (6672 sq ft)
Site occupancy index: 0.4
Floor area ratio: 0.8
Building envelope, building line, and boundary: 12 m x 14 m (39 ft x 46 ft)
Number of parking spaces: 1 + 1 garage
Number of stories: 2
Roof type: pitched roofs
Orientation: north
Additional requirements: drainage ditch in front of the building envelope on the south side, 3 m (10 ft) wide, with a planned crossing 4 m (13 ft) wide

Client Requirements
Style, roof form, building type: urban villa
Basement, number of floors: no basement, 2 full floors
Number of occupants, ages: 4 people, ages 40, 41, 14, 14
Annual overnight guests: none
Conservative or modern construction: modern
Open kitchen, kitchen island: kitchen island, semi-open with sliding door to the dining area
Number of dining seats: 8
Fireplace: yes, as a divider between living and dining areas
Music/sound system wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: yes
Garage, carport: yes
Vegetable garden, greenhouse: no
Additional wishes / special features / daily routine, including reasons why some features are preferred or avoided

House Design
Who designed the plan:
- Do-it-Yourself

What do you like especially? Why?
Large living area and master bedroom with walk-in closet and bathroom
Spacious kitchen

What don’t you like? Why?
Price estimate according to architect/planner:
No estimate yet as they have not been contacted so far

Personal budget limit for the house, including equipment:
No idea yet

Preferred heating technology:
No preference, but if the setup with subsidies etc. works out, a geothermal heat pump could be used again. Otherwise, it should be good value for money.

Hello!

Unfortunately, I don’t fully remember the previous draft, but I believe I criticized the kitchen. I still find the small dining table somewhat out of place, as well as a kitchen island in a closed-off space. However, I think it’s a bit better now. I wouldn’t store things you need constantly while cooking in the cabinets on the right side of the plan, as that would result in a lot of walking back and forth.

Upstairs, I like the children’s area. I would skip the bathtub in the kids’ bathroom. Bathtubs aren’t used often enough to justify having two on the same floor.

The bedroom has some useless space on the left side of the plan, which is also separated by a room divider. Why is it designed that way?

I would reconsider the window directly above the bathtub.

I find a lot of the space is unnecessarily large and doesn’t add real value. The gallery and upstairs bedroom, kitchen, dining area... sure, there’s room for a Christmas tree. But realistically, the living room can’t be furnished properly despite its size. The utility room, on the other hand, is way too small to use as both a freezer and laundry area. The garage is the same: incredibly huge, but still only fits one car.

For the cost of the extra space, I would build 50sqm (538 sq ft) smaller and instead include, for example, a well-placed open void or something more creative than a townhouse where the forced symmetry means even the bathroom window isn’t positioned well.

Therefore, when buying a house, I wouldn’t just focus on sheer size, but on design finesse.

I think it’s good that you are planning a lot of wardrobe space. However, I’m less happy with how it’s arranged. The narrow corridor in front of it causes people to block each other and creates congestion.
I find the ground floor toilet quite narrow. If I’m reading it correctly, the room is 1.20 m wide (3 ft 11 in)? Then there is the installation wall of about 15 cm (6 inches), plus a few centimeters more for the plaster. In the worst case, the room would only be about 1 m (3 ft 3 in) wide at the end.

@ypg sums it up well. I would say it’s a large house with limited space. The living area is spacious, but you have a lot of empty space in the middle. The kitchen is big, but I don’t see the purpose of the small table. Maybe a breakfast bar at the island would work better?

What do you plan to use the separated area in the bedroom for?