ᐅ Preliminary Planning with the Architect – Is Having Your Own Floor Plan Helpful?

Good evening, dear forum community,

Next week, we will start the preliminary design phase with the architect. My mind has been busy with the house topic for months, meaning, of course, that I have many ideas and a clear personal vision for the house. I have played around with my own hand sketches for the exterior appearance, and I have also thought extensively about the room layout.

Now, I know that many architects here in the forum tend to view homeowners’ attempts at floor plan design, to put it mildly, quite critically. However, I couldn’t resist using the planning software myself. I put all my ideas into one draft. I can’t really tell if it’s complete nonsense or if it possibly contains something useful for the planning process.

The question I have now is: should I just leave the floor plan in the drawer, or should I actually show it to the architect? Would it be better to let the architect find a solution without any preconceptions? Or is it better to present my (our) ideas using the self-made floor plan and then let the architect develop something from it (maybe even something completely different)?

What do you think?

Many thanks and best regards

Ben

Show it here.

Plan for a larger opening (length) for a staircase.

Regarding the budget:
- A roof terrace costs money but is hardly used (maybe by the smoking teenager, but what about the other child... sulking in a room without access?!)
- Support beams for a very open floor plan also cost more; consider including a load-bearing wall
- The freezer room is a bit too awkward, which limits the layout options
- When planning a dining area, a wider table is necessary (yours is only as deep as the kitchen countertops)
- The extension also costs money (insulation)...
- The placement of the window in the home office doesn’t make sense to me; perhaps it belongs to the bedroom instead?
- The kitchen layout is impractical and the circulation space is too large

A good starting point for an architect in any case... they will at least understand your ideas, which I think can still be realized with some adjustments

You should only provide the architect with a list of what is important to you.
I recommend creating your own floor plan sketches to better understand what matters to you.

When you show the floor plan to the architect, they will interpret the following, among other things:

Outside:
- A long, complicated path to the building is preferred

Ground floor:
- Make the living room as uncomfortable as possible and design it as a walk-through room; under no circumstances should it directly face the garden
- Plan the TV and home theater setup as poorly as possible, since it will probably not be important even to a future buyer of the house
- Make sure there is a clear view from the dining table and living area to the entire path and the door to the guest bathroom
- We are control freaks, so please ensure the living room has views of all doors and the staircase
- The kitchen must be designed to be dysfunctional, with no reasonable usability or comfort, and located as far away from the entrance as possible
- If possible, waste as much space as you can through poor planning

Upper floor:
- Please design children's rooms of uneven sizes; one child’s room can share a wall with the master bedroom
- 45-degree corners are not a last resort for us
- The master bedroom should be as small as possible; adequate storage for clothes is not needed, and a practical layout for handicaps in old age is explicitly not desired
- In the bathroom, the bathtub should be squeezed in somewhere, no wellness features at all, definitely allow a view of the toilet from the entrance, and keep everything cramped

... Such houses can be intentionally designed, so feel free to show your plan to the architect...

Best regards
WD

So, please refer back to my original question. I know the floor plan is definitely not perfect or even successful, and I have already noticed some of your criticisms myself. The architect is responsible for finding solutions. What I’m more interested in is describing what we like about the floor plan.

So, is the general consensus that we should not go with this floor plan? Am I correct in understanding Wanderdüne’s suggestion as irony?

Hi,
I would recommend trying without the drawing. It’s better if you express your wishes clearly and let him handle it. You are the one paying, so he should do the thinking. If you give him a fixed guideline, he will always stick to it and think less for himself. And if you don’t like the result, you can always pull out the sketch later. But I don’t think it will come to that.

@Wanderdüne: Criticism is fine, but this unfounded sarcasm is completely inappropriate. Ben only asked politely what we would recommend...