ᐅ Opinion on Our Architect’s Floor Plan

kbt09 schrieb:
ypg ... okay ... but corner cabinets in these situations are rather impractical, aren’t they?

I wouldn’t do that either. But I’m working with feasible and obvious placeholders, since the tool can measure, but those measurements are usually not easy for the questioners to grasp (see the kitchen with 3.50m (11.5 ft)). And you assumed 3 meters (9.8 ft)!
Personally, I would also leave out the side cabinets, avoid worshiping the four meters (13.1 ft) and maybe just add a dresser and an armchair. Also, in my quick-and-dirty sketch done in half an hour, the doors are obviously not fixed, so the planning should mainly serve as a first look at how the rooms could be ideally arranged on the floor area in this layout—with added value and sense—rather than settling for the “I’m fine with the cramped hallway.”

Papierturm schrieb:
Are the utility rooms inside or outside the thermal envelope?

Partly both

Papierturm schrieb:
However, I believe, based on @ypg’s plans, that you could get significantly more house for the same resources here.

I think so too. I just followed my instinct with a bit of light mental effort. And there’s definitely much more potential if you spend more time on the planning.

By the way: if I hadn’t unboxed my new window-cleaning robot today, I wouldn’t have rushed ahead so quickly. But I did gain some time 😉
You can clearly see that this is just an initial idea from the architect, which still has a lot of potential before even thinking about a final detailed drawing!

kbt09 schrieb:
So orange is roughly around your 1000 sqm (10,764 sq ft)? And what will happen to the buildings marked in yellow?

That is correct. In a few weeks, this will be an open green field.

In the case of the specific design of the master bathroom and the lack of "alternative options" (simply moving walls seems difficult since the master bedroom and hallway offer little buffer space; well, swapping it with the walk-in closet remains an option, but then the window planning won’t fit anymore…), I would recommend insisting on a realistic bathroom layout before finalizing the floor plan to ensure it really works.

The same applies to the kitchen/pantry area: does the pantry comfortably fit a freezer chest? Also, possibly due to the somewhat unfortunate suggestion by the architect, I don’t see a proper place for tall cabinets in the kitchen?! The proposed extra half meter (50cm (20 inches)) in width would help a lot, making many things possible, including a tall cabinet wall plus a large, airplane-carrier-sized island.

However, I’m afraid that extra half meter (50cm (20 inches)) can’t simply be taken from the hallway, because although the hallway’s raw measurement of 2.01m (6 feet 7 inches) looks generously wide on the plan, once the planned 60cm (24 inches) wardrobe cabinet is placed there, you end up with a passage less than 1.4m (4 feet 7 inches) wide along a longer stretch (a wardrobe for four people might need almost 2m (6 feet 7 inches))—if the wardrobe doors are open and/or someone stands in front putting on a jacket, it quickly becomes tight and uncomfortable. So the assumption that the wardrobe fits comfortably in the hallway should be reviewed carefully depending on your lifestyle situation (small children = small clothes but lots of them, plus assistance needed for dressing = child and adult standing in the way, plus possibly a stroller/pram; gardening/outdoor hobbies = more weather clothing = more wardrobe space needed; older age or back issues = bench or seating needed for putting on shoes…).

Regarding the children’s area upstairs: a connecting balcony from which you can look into each other’s rooms and even see into the children’s bathroom could easily lead to conflict as the children grow older. If the children are already present and can be consulted, I would strongly recommend getting their opinion! The children’s bathroom also feels very narrow to me, so I would definitely plan it carefully in advance to make sure everything fits comfortably… (although I might be mistaken and just reacting to the length of the room).

I have a question for the community, aside from the spatial layout discussed on the last few pages.

Doesn't the garage need a massive beam planned in to support the exterior wall of the upper floor?
There is no direct load-bearing wall underneath it on the ground floor.
And the garage is quite long now…

Just for my understanding.

Hello,

The upper floor can also freely cantilever over the garage. This is a standard cantilever. The ceiling will need to be constructed thicker. The thermal decoupling of the garage is challenging. Most likely this will be done using thermal break elements in a continuous ceiling plus insulation from below. Alternatively, insulation could be applied to the entire garage ceiling from both below and above, as well as to the walls.

Best regards

We have given it some more thought and incorporated your feedback.

What do you think about this?
This is now our final draft. The roof design is still undecided. Another option might also be considered.