ᐅ Planning a Single-Family Home: 550 sqm Plot, L-Shaped Layout, South-Facing, Gable Roof
Created on: 23 Nov 2025 16:49
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WoodyXYZ
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
House Design
Whose design is it:
- Based on various floor plans from skilled forum members
What do you like most? Why?
What don’t you like? Why?
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.
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.
I don’t want to comment on this design.
But can you personally explain to me in simple terms why a half-landing staircase is so appealing to you? I mean, here it is even closed off in the middle by a wall. What is the added value now? Visually, there is nothing left of the landing.
But can you personally explain to me in simple terms why a half-landing staircase is so appealing to you? I mean, here it is even closed off in the middle by a wall. What is the added value now? Visually, there is nothing left of the landing.
ypg schrieb:
I don’t want to comment on this design. That’s a pity, may I ask why not? After all, you are one of those with many good ideas here.
ypg schrieb:
But can you personally explain to me why a staircase with a landing is so appealing to you?
I mean, here it’s even closed off in the middle by a wall. So what is the added value? Visually, nothing remains of the landing. To be honest, it doesn’t have to be a staircase with a landing. My drawing software is a bit limited in that respect. It could equally well be a half-turn staircase. Since there is 3.7–3.8 m (12–12.5 ft) of space at the starting side, I can also imagine a quarter-turn staircase going upward.
WoodyXYZ schrieb:
Landing staircase -> our absolute favorite WoodyXYZ schrieb:
Honestly, it doesn’t have to be a landing staircase. Okay..
WoodyXYZ schrieb:
Too bad, may I ask why not? After all, you are one of those with many good ideas here. The good ideas just don’t get through to many people. It’s not even about ideas, but about basic principles that should be considered. Nobody cares because they absolutely want this or that.
If you have to manage with limited square meters, you have to give up quite a bit. I won’t go into detail anymore, because I feel like I’ve written the same thing for the past four weeks: “please avoid a pantry/secondary kitchen and make your main kitchen functional,” “don’t make a bedroom a pass-through room, you disturb others,” “avoid unnecessary corners in hallways where people can get caught,” “landing staircases waste unnecessary space,” and so on.
Good idea to expand the attic later. Keep in mind that also costs money. Not every attic is suitable for conversion. People tend to save on that, and if you plan it, the building supervisor (BU) needs to know because of the structural engineering.
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MachsSelbst10 Dec 2025 00:19Buy a program that allows you to design and plan your house exactly as you want...
There are various options available, but generally speaking, the cost of mistakes increases by a factor of 10 to 20 with each project phase.
So if you save 500 EUR now and make mistakes, it will already cost you 5,000 EUR in the next phase, 50,000 EUR during construction, and so on.
Not a smart idea... I have been working in project management for 15 years... trust me...
There are various options available, but generally speaking, the cost of mistakes increases by a factor of 10 to 20 with each project phase.
So if you save 500 EUR now and make mistakes, it will already cost you 5,000 EUR in the next phase, 50,000 EUR during construction, and so on.
Not a smart idea... I have been working in project management for 15 years... trust me...
Papierturm10 Dec 2025 08:04WoodyXYZ schrieb:
Where we are uncertain:
- Direct access to the pantry from both the hallway and kitchen. Should we keep both or limit it to one (which one)?
- Is it okay to keep the utility room/restroom area as it is?
- The same question applies to the layout of the bedroom/dressing room.
- The hallway on the ground floor narrows to 1.5m (5 feet) at the tightest point and is otherwise even 1.85m (6 feet) wide. That seems a bit too wide to me since no additional wardrobes are planned there. Would 1.2m (4 feet) or 1.55m (5 feet) probably be sufficient?
Okay. First, some positive feedback: I already like this plan much better than the previous one.Now, some points to consider:
1. As @ypg already mentioned: The bedroom should not be a passage room! I’ll quote myself from last night:
Papierturm schrieb:
- In terms of traffic flow, the bedroom should be at the end and not serve as a passage to the dressing room. (Daily routine: one person gets up, goes to the bathroom, comes back, goes into the dressing room to get clothes or even dress, then either goes back to the bathroom to continue getting ready or heads down to the kitchen. Either way, the passage traffic is rather disturbing for anyone still wanting to sleep.)2. Pantry vs. kitchen: Here, I want to make a general point. Broadly speaking, a house consists of storage space, traffic space, and living space. As soon as you build in a pantry, you create traffic space in addition to storage. Any room with more than one door reduces storage space and increases traffic space. For rooms where storage space is important (such as utility rooms or pantries), this is a disadvantage because it reduces the room’s everyday usability. The smaller the room, the more noticeable this effect is. (An extra square meter of traffic space in a 40m² (430 sqft) room hardly matters; in a 5m² (54 sqft) room, it is very significant.) Personally (but this is subjective), I would make this decision: If I primarily use the room for storage, access should only be from the hallway. If I use it mainly as a pantry, access only from the kitchen.3. Landing stairs vs. other stair layouts: I don’t like the kitchen here because it simply lacks tall cabinets and good spots for various appliances/work areas such as the sink. My impression is that I would plan the kitchen a bit wider. If the landing were eliminated, the staircase could be narrower, allowing for at least one additional tall cabinet in the kitchen. Another option (though I am not sure if this works or looks balanced dimension-wise) would be to remove the pantry altogether and let the kitchen fill the entire space. I suspect this would create even more storage space overall, but I’m not certain.
Regarding the hallway on the ground floor: I’m hesitant about 1.2m (4 feet), considering prams or other bulky items. 1.8m (6 feet) is quite wide and could be narrower in my view.
One more observation: I expect that later the children will be asked to use the main bathroom at night and in the morning. For the room layout, I would strongly recommend soundproof walls between the children’s bathroom and the bedroom.
ypg schrieb:
Ok.. Yes, I should have added that it doesn’t necessarily have to be a landing staircase anymore. It’s still our favorite.
ypg schrieb:
Good ideas often just get dismissed by many. And it’s not even about ideas, but about principles that should be considered. Well, as a first-time homeowner, you have to really think about and let those ideas or principles sink in.
ypg schrieb:
Good idea to convert the attic later. Keep in mind that it also costs money. Not every attic is suitable for conversion. Yes, we will address that from the start.
ypg schrieb:
“Avoid a bedroom as a walkthrough room; you disturb the other,” “No unnecessary corners in hallways where you can catch yourself,” Do you find the following layout better regarding bedroom/dressing room? No walkthrough bedroom, no unnecessary corner in the hallway.
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MachsSelbst schrieb:
Buy a program with which you can draw and plan your house exactly as you wish... Your message already sounds much friendlier and more constructive than your original one 😉 The program has everything I need, and I don’t intend to use it to draw a building permit submission or detailed construction plans. I believe the paid version is mainly to unlock more furniture and such. Apparently, there is a half-landing staircase, but the quarter-landing ones are missing, my mistake.
Papierturm schrieb:
Okay. First the positive: I like this plan significantly better than the previous one. So do we 🙂
Papierturm schrieb:
3. Landing staircase vs. other staircase types: I don’t like the kitchen, Something seems to have gotten lost here
Papierturm schrieb:
I don’t like the kitchen because it simply lacks tall cabinets and good placements for various appliances/work areas (like the sink) overall. In my impression, I would plan it wider. We will have to focus more on kitchen planning.
Papierturm schrieb:
What else I notice: I suspect that later the children will be asked to use the main bathroom at night and in the mornings. In terms of room design, I would strongly recommend appropriate soundproof walls between the children’s bathroom and the bedroom. Yes, both. Everyone (not just the children) should use the main bathroom at night. Still, the soundproofing should be well implemented.
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