ᐅ Planning a Single-Family Home: 550 sqm Plot, L-Shaped Layout, South-Facing, Gable Roof

Created on: 23 Nov 2025 16:49

Hi,

let’s start directly with the questionnaire.

Development Plan/Restrictions
Plot size: approx. 550sqm (5909 sqft)
Slope: no (approx. 0.5m (20 inches) height difference over 22m (72 feet) plot width)
Floor area ratio: 0.4
Plot ratio: n.a.
Building envelope, building line and boundary: 16m (52 feet) west-east + 3m (10 feet) border construction each side, 14m (46 feet) north-south, 5m (16 feet) setback from the house to the street
Edge development: yes (north: public access road, west and south: bike path, east: neighboring development with a semi-detached house, currently vacant)
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 2
Roof pitch: 0-35°
Style: standard
Orientation: south-facing (garden)
Maximum heights/limits: eaves height 5.5-7m (18-23 feet), building height 10m (33 feet)
Additional requirements: none

Client Requirements
Style, roof type, building type: preferably gable roof
Basement, floors: no basement, 2 full floors + expandable attic
Number of occupants, ages: 4 for the main apartment (2x41, 9, 7)
Room requirements on ground and upper floors:
Ground floor: living-dining area, open kitchen, office/guest room, guest WC, utility/technical room
Upper floor: 2 children’s rooms each at least 15sqm (161 sqft) facing south, bedroom with window facing west, bathroom, second shower bathroom
Attic: multi-purpose room (hobby) + storage space due to missing basement
Office: family use or home office? Home office
Guests per year: occasional
Open or closed architecture: rather open (open galleries not included)
Traditional or modern construction: ...
Open kitchen, kitchen island: both yes
Number of dining seats: 6
Fireplace: no
Music/stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: yes, but not yet decided which; placement on east side
Vegetable garden, greenhouse: no
Other wishes/special features/daily routine, including reasons why certain things are or are not wanted

Backup kitchen was originally planned but removed due to space constraints
Utility room also serves as laundry room since washing and drying will be done on the ground floor
Children’s rooms facing south are mandatory, each at least 15sqm (161 sqft)
Walk-in closet would be nice but not mandatory; better to have larger children’s rooms
We prefer rectangular floor plans over square ones, partly because this leaves more room for the south-facing garden. And yes, I know squares are also rectangles.
Layout in L-shape with living (south), dining (south-west) and kitchen (west) is basically fixed. The “I” shape did not appeal to us in any show home.
Terrace will be on the south side
A small path directly from kitchen to south-facing terrace is also planned

House Design
Whose design is it:
- Based on various floor plans from skilled forum members

What do you like most? Why?

Platform staircase — our absolute favorite
Not too deep building volume (9.4m / 31 feet) allows for more garden space
Ground floor

Living-dining area plus kitchen fits our requirements. We saw this in a show home and immediately agreed on this look.
Office saves me constant stair climbing on home office days
Utility room is probably large enough for technical equipment and laundry

Upper floor

Large and equally sized children’s rooms facing south
Second bathroom on the upper floor is practical
Bedroom facing west was important to us (evening sun). To the east, the neighbor’s semi-detached house with 2.5 floors would be very close (currently just a guess)

What don’t you like? Why?

No backup kitchen — possibly make the walk-in closet smaller and move guest WC to the niche near office or utility room to create a small backup kitchen
If backup kitchen is not feasible, then at least pantry under the stairs and slightly smaller utility room
Bathroom could be a bit wider to accommodate a T-layout, which we really like

Price estimate according to architect/planner: ...
Personal price limit for the house including equipment: 500,000
Preferred heating technology: geothermal heat pump (or local heating network)

If you had to give up on something, which details/extensions
- Can you do without: garage
- Cannot do without:

Why did the design end up the way it is now? For example:,
Which of your wishes were implemented by the architect?
We studied various floor plans here in the forum and this is the result. Furniture (office, children’s rooms) and bathroom fittings are still missing here and there.

What makes it particularly good or bad in your opinion?
We like it, but there is certainly room for improvement here and there. The floor plan is already oriented almost perfectly.

Floor plan of a house with kitchen, living area, hallway, and utility room, including measurements

2D floor plan of a house with bedroom, bathroom, children’s rooms and hallway

Plot and floor plan with dimension lines and color-coded areas

WoodyXYZ24 Nov 2025 08:34

Schmirgel schrieb:

I think the children's rooms are a bit too large to furnish efficiently. ... To save space in the ground floor hallway, the office could be made accessible from the living room, allowing the hallway to be shortened in favor of the office and utility room.

The furnishing is still open for discussion; we should take a closer look. However, I have no doubt that we can fill the rooms fully. 🙂 A direct connection between the office and living room was rejected outright 😉

nordanney schrieb:

What is included in the 500k for the house?

Only the building structure.

hanghaus202324 Nov 2025 10:18

I tidied up the upper floor. No one needs a 15m2 (160 ft²) bathroom—it’s extremely expensive.

2D floor plan of a house with bedroom, children's rooms, hallways, and stairs

The ground floor still needs some work.

hanghaus202324 Nov 2025 11:54

Here is the ground floor.

Floor plan of a house with kitchen, living room, hallway, office, and utility/technical room.

Or like this?

Floor plan of an apartment with kitchen, living area, office, hallway, and technical room, measurements visible

There is still a lot of possibility here.

Ibdk1424 Nov 2025 13:51

#10

We have a very similar layout, but mirrored and longer (which is why we have a straight staircase), since the three children’s bedrooms are in the south and our master bedroom is in the southeast. So the kitchen is in the east, and the home office in the west. I prefer to have sunlight in the kitchen in the morning rather than in the afternoon or evening when the sun has already set. The same goes for the master bedroom.

Just out of curiosity—what is the reason for this preference? It’s unfamiliar to me, but perhaps your lifestyle is very different from ours.
If you like, please explain it to me. It might also be interesting for others who want to help you with the floor plan design.

WoodyXYZ24 Nov 2025 17:30

#11

Papierturm schrieb:

You enter and see a half wall leading to the semi-open living area.

At first, we didn’t think it was that bad. After the simple 3D rendering from our design software, we still thought so. But when we recreated the drawing from @hanghaus2023, the closed version convinced us. If something like this is implemented with loft doors or similar, it probably looks much, much better than a half wall you walk towards.

hanghaus2023 schrieb:

I tidied up the upper floor. Nobody needs a 15m² (161ft²) bathroom, and it’s extremely expensive.

Where do you get 15m² (161ft²) from? The drawing only shows 12m² (129ft²) for the main bathroom. I haven’t recreated your upper floor plan yet to see the exact dimensions, but honestly, we don’t like this layout very much. An additional room has been added that we don’t really need. On the other hand, the main bathroom has become too small for me personally. We don’t need a luxury bathroom, but it can be a bit bigger. The children’s rooms have probably become noticeably smaller but are likely still adequately sized, and we have a walk-in closet instead. I don’t mind a walk-in closet, but the children’s rooms are more important to me than a walk-in closet. As I said, I haven’t recreated the exact dimensions yet.

hanghaus2023 schrieb:

Here is the ground floor… or something like that?

I like the second option much better. However, we are still unsure about the kitchen island’s look. At the moment, I would tend to keep the kitchen island smaller and still be able to close off the kitchen and living area with sliding doors or similar when needed.

Ibdk14 schrieb:

We have a very similar layout but mirrored and longer (hence a straight staircase), with three children’s rooms facing south and our bedroom in the southeast. So the kitchen is in the east, the study in the west. I prefer morning sun in the kitchen rather than afternoon or evening when the sun has already set. Same with the master bedroom. Just out of curiosity, what is the reason for your preference? It’s unfamiliar to me, but you might have very different daily routines than we do. If you want, explain it to me. It might also be interesting for others helping with the floor plan.

Well, the neighboring buildings play a significant role, too. The picture of the lot in the opening post shows a direct neighbor to the east. They will probably have a garage at the boundary and are very likely to build a semi-detached house with two full stories plus a pitched roof about 10m (33ft) deep. We’re also planning our carport/garage on the east side. This means east-facing sun will be scarce. On the west side, however, we have about 6m (20ft) of garden space before a 3m (10ft) wide bike path and then the neighbor’s garage/carport. Also, we tend to be home mostly in the afternoons and evenings and enjoy the evening light.

Papierturm24 Nov 2025 19:45

#12

WoodyXYZ schrieb:

Another idea was to place the guest toilet on the east side, where the two niches are now. In both cases, the path to the guest toilet remains quite long.

Still, I think the east side (as also suggested by @hanghaus2023) would be much better for several reasons.
1. You don’t have to pass through the cloakroom. I’m not sure how you are planning the cloakroom, but with 2 adults and 2 children, I would expect some clutter and quite a few shoes/boots etc.
2. Also, the guest toilet wouldn’t be in the “dirty zone” anymore. Yes, some have rightly pointed out that you don’t (every day) cross through the barn.

However: There are people who always walk around in socks or even barefoot inside their home. For them, the entrance area often isn’t clean enough.

We tried that. If we keep the current layout with the open-plan living/kitchen area, we would end up with a 7m (23 feet) long corridor, which is absolutely out of the question.

Basically, I find @hanghaus2023’s suggestion way better than my idea, so I would strongly recommend using that as the basis.

Still, a small note: Whether the 7 meters (23 feet) look like a corridor depends on the design. A slightly protruding staircase, light through suitable elements (e.g., internal windows, doors with glass panels—maybe not for the guest toilet, but perhaps for the utility room or office?). And of course, the width of the hallway.

Even in the current plans, it is quite a long route, and depending on lighting conditions and design, it could feel like a corridor—or not.

(I really like @hanghaus2023’s layouts for both the ground floor and first floor.)

Ibdk14 schrieb:

We have a very similar layout but mirrored and longer (therefore a straight staircase), since three children’s rooms are on the south side and our bedroom in the southeast. So kitchen in the east, study in the west. I personally prefer sunlight in the kitchen in the morning, not in the afternoon or evening when the sun is already down. Same for the master bedroom.

Just out of curiosity: what is the reason for this preference? I just don’t get it, but maybe your lifestyle is quite different from ours. If you want, explain it to me. Maybe it’s also interesting for others who want to help with your floor plan design.

I can totally understand @WoodyXYZ here. We are also active in the kitchen mostly in the late morning/noon and afternoon/evening, but rarely early in the morning. In the morning, it’s usually only briefly and with simple tasks. We don’t need much light for making sandwiches, but when cooking and baking, we need more.

But these are quite personal habits. In other families, mornings might be used more intensively.

ᐅ Planning a Single-Family Home: 550 sqm Plot, L-Shaped Layout, South-Facing, Gable Roof

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