ᐅ Optimizing the Floor Plan for a New Single-Family Home Build
Created on: 22 Aug 2020 20:42
H
hausvoraus
Hello everyone,
I would appreciate feedback on the following floor plan. I’m completely new to the forum but have read comments on various other designs here. Before receiving feedback suggesting a complete redesign, I prefer to put this unfinished draft up for discussion.
What is still unfinished: window positions and sizes, furniture arrangement in the living room, separation between the utility room and the adjacent pantry, acoustic optimization of the home office.
Development plan/restrictions: driveway on the left, not allowed on the same side as the house
Plot size: 650 sqm (about 7,000 sq ft)
Slope: no
Site coverage ratio: 0.35
Floor space ratio: unknown
Building envelope, setback line and boundary: 3 m (10 ft)
Edge development:
Number of parking spaces: 1
Number of stories: 2–3
Roof type: no hip roofs allowed
Architectural style: no preference
Orientation: fixed due to road location
Maximum height/limits: 11 m (36 ft) for 3 floors
Other requirements: open building style
Homeowners’ requirements
Style, roof, building type: Bauhaus, flat roof
Basement, floors: no basement, 2 stories
Number of occupants, ages: 5 people, including 3 children aged 2 to 8 years
Room requirements on ground and upper floors: not defined, based on required rooms
Office: separate room needed for a home office
Overnight guests per year: at least 2, sometimes several weeks at a time
Open or closed architecture: closed, for acoustic reasons
Traditional or modern construction: modern, minimalist, efficient
Open kitchen, island: island desired, open kitchen preferred
Number of dining seats: usually 5, more when hosting guests
Fireplace: no
Music/sound system wall: no, but a good idea
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: carport directly adjacent
Utility garden, greenhouse: small garden accessible from the terrace, which should be accessible from the living room
Other wishes/considerations/daily routine, including reasons why some things should or shouldn’t be:
- Ground floor should be as age-appropriate as possible (older guests, so guest room and shower on ground floor)
- Morning sun should shine into the bedroom for natural waking
- Terrace not southwest-facing to avoid overheating
- Home office should be located to minimize disturbances to others when starting early or working late
- The home office needs good acoustic separation from the rest of the house for calls (children should not be overheard; the “worker” ideally not heard outside the room)
- Children’s rooms can be relatively small, as bunk beds with space underneath are planned
- There should be enough space in front of the TV in the living room for children to join in activities (dancing, etc.)
- Quietness is important due to current noisy and stressful living conditions (loud street, poor door seals, noisy children)
- The layout should be efficient and functional: short distances, easy to clean, robot vacuum should be able to reach most areas
- Smart home requirements and space needs for equipment are still unclear
- The house should be bright but able to be quickly darkened in the evening (blinds or similar)
- An electric piano must fit somewhere (probably upstairs, in a gallery above the front door)
House design
Origin of the design: based on a standard plan with many DIY modifications
What you like: it seems quite efficient already
What you dislike: possibly too little storage (no basement, so likely need a shed somewhere)
Price estimate from architect/planner: not yet known
Personal budget including equipment: approx. 450,000
Preferred heating system: district heating, as this is standard there
If you had to give up certain details/features:
- Can be omitted: kitchen island, kitchen does not have to be open, one of the children’s rooms if necessary (another would have to be larger)
- Cannot give up: separation of guest and home office, must be two separate rooms
Why is the design the way it is now?
We reviewed many standard plans and then used one as a base for various modifications through many iterations.
What do you think is especially good or bad about it? /
What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan in 130 characters or less?
What can be improved and why? Unfiltered feedback is very welcome.
Thank you very much
I would appreciate feedback on the following floor plan. I’m completely new to the forum but have read comments on various other designs here. Before receiving feedback suggesting a complete redesign, I prefer to put this unfinished draft up for discussion.
What is still unfinished: window positions and sizes, furniture arrangement in the living room, separation between the utility room and the adjacent pantry, acoustic optimization of the home office.
Development plan/restrictions: driveway on the left, not allowed on the same side as the house
Plot size: 650 sqm (about 7,000 sq ft)
Slope: no
Site coverage ratio: 0.35
Floor space ratio: unknown
Building envelope, setback line and boundary: 3 m (10 ft)
Edge development:
Number of parking spaces: 1
Number of stories: 2–3
Roof type: no hip roofs allowed
Architectural style: no preference
Orientation: fixed due to road location
Maximum height/limits: 11 m (36 ft) for 3 floors
Other requirements: open building style
Homeowners’ requirements
Style, roof, building type: Bauhaus, flat roof
Basement, floors: no basement, 2 stories
Number of occupants, ages: 5 people, including 3 children aged 2 to 8 years
Room requirements on ground and upper floors: not defined, based on required rooms
Office: separate room needed for a home office
Overnight guests per year: at least 2, sometimes several weeks at a time
Open or closed architecture: closed, for acoustic reasons
Traditional or modern construction: modern, minimalist, efficient
Open kitchen, island: island desired, open kitchen preferred
Number of dining seats: usually 5, more when hosting guests
Fireplace: no
Music/sound system wall: no, but a good idea
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: carport directly adjacent
Utility garden, greenhouse: small garden accessible from the terrace, which should be accessible from the living room
Other wishes/considerations/daily routine, including reasons why some things should or shouldn’t be:
- Ground floor should be as age-appropriate as possible (older guests, so guest room and shower on ground floor)
- Morning sun should shine into the bedroom for natural waking
- Terrace not southwest-facing to avoid overheating
- Home office should be located to minimize disturbances to others when starting early or working late
- The home office needs good acoustic separation from the rest of the house for calls (children should not be overheard; the “worker” ideally not heard outside the room)
- Children’s rooms can be relatively small, as bunk beds with space underneath are planned
- There should be enough space in front of the TV in the living room for children to join in activities (dancing, etc.)
- Quietness is important due to current noisy and stressful living conditions (loud street, poor door seals, noisy children)
- The layout should be efficient and functional: short distances, easy to clean, robot vacuum should be able to reach most areas
- Smart home requirements and space needs for equipment are still unclear
- The house should be bright but able to be quickly darkened in the evening (blinds or similar)
- An electric piano must fit somewhere (probably upstairs, in a gallery above the front door)
House design
Origin of the design: based on a standard plan with many DIY modifications
What you like: it seems quite efficient already
What you dislike: possibly too little storage (no basement, so likely need a shed somewhere)
Price estimate from architect/planner: not yet known
Personal budget including equipment: approx. 450,000
Preferred heating system: district heating, as this is standard there
If you had to give up certain details/features:
- Can be omitted: kitchen island, kitchen does not have to be open, one of the children’s rooms if necessary (another would have to be larger)
- Cannot give up: separation of guest and home office, must be two separate rooms
Why is the design the way it is now?
We reviewed many standard plans and then used one as a base for various modifications through many iterations.
What do you think is especially good or bad about it? /
What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan in 130 characters or less?
What can be improved and why? Unfiltered feedback is very welcome.
Thank you very much
hampshire schrieb:
Adding a room in the basement is a good idea. It could also be a guest room – guests are probably there less often than you are working from home.
This is an additional attic.
H
hampshire28 Aug 2020 14:27Elokine schrieb:
This is an additional attic floor.Thank you, then the idea of mezzanines for the children can also be discarded. I thought the basement was a good idea.
hausvoraus schrieb:
Only this time, we didn’t look for a floor plan as a suitable base but started from scratch. Alone, I remain skeptical. At first glance and even without glasses, I can see that the advice to start with the upper floor was ignored. Instead, there is now a penthouse level. Poor Child 2 not only seems to have the smallest room, but also has to hear that they supposedly have the middle one—nominally one and a half square meters more than Child 1, but in terms of furniture, at least just as much less. And you most likely didn’t begin with a room layout; among other things, the penthouse level is proof of that.
hampshire schrieb:
Giving up exterior symmetry allows you to position the kitchen window where the optimal kitchen design permits.
The façade’s symmetry results either in a window that’s too small for the guest room or too large for the guest bathroom. Here too, it’s better to think from the inside out. Symmetry in the hands of amateur designers is generally the greatest architectural mood killer, though at least I didn’t immediately spot any here.
Ceterum censeo: I am in favor of introducing a “prescription requirement” for symmetry.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
H
hausvoraus28 Aug 2020 16:5211ant schrieb:
Alone, I lack belief. At first glance and without glasses, I can see that the advice to start with the upper floor was ignored. We did not start with the upper floor. Was that mentioned here somewhere? If so, I must have missed it.
11ant schrieb:
And you almost certainly did not start with a room layout plan. What do you mean by "room layout plan" in this context?
hausvoraus schrieb:
We didn’t start with the upper floor. Was that mentioned somewhere? I must have missed it. 11ant schrieb:
(but probably still built the upper floor on top of the ground floor, an understandable mistake for a layperson). .
hausvoraus schrieb:
What does “room planning” mean in this context? First the math homework, then the fun of drawing. So, create a table listing the rooms and their sizes, and the total area of all rooms on the upper floor and ground floor should be roughly equal (“city villa”) or, depending on the regional building code, the attic floor should have less area than the ground floor (“one-and-a-half storey”). If this step is neglected, a room ends up on the “roof luggage rack,” meaning the recessed top floor. Having the upper floor larger than the ground floor is not a problem (as long as the total floor area of twice the upper floor complies with the floor area ratio and the budget), you just “waste” some space on the ground floor. Typically, the upper floor/attic is designed for bedrooms and the ground floor for living spaces, and it’s easier to plan the more detailed floor first and then derive the other from it. (Note for those building on a sloped site: the rule of thumb “upper floor before ground floor” cannot be applied directly when dealing with ground floor and basement!).
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
H
hausvoraus28 Aug 2020 20:4711ant schrieb:
Poor child 2 not only seems to have the smallest room, but also has to hear that it is actually the middle-sized one – nominally one and a half square meters larger than child 1, but with at least as much less usable furnishing space. Why does it feel smaller and less usable – is it because it is more rectangular rather than square? For child 2, the interior measurements are 2.5m * 4.8m = 12 sqm (plus a narrow entrance), which is more than child 1’s 11.9 sqm (including the door).
11ant schrieb:
And you most likely didn’t start with a floor plan, among other things the attic floor is proof. Additional info: In this area, a third floor must be built, which was not clear before. Therefore, our conclusion was to move some things there.
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