ᐅ Preliminary Floor Plan Review for a Single-Family Home with 150 m² of Living Space

Dear forum members,

Attached is a self-created preliminary plan for a single-family house with approximately 150m2 (1,615 sq ft) of living space. This is intended as preparation and a basis for the architect meeting next week. I would appreciate your feedback and any suggestions you may have.

Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 712m2 (7,663 sq ft)
Slope: Yes, will be leveled (retaining walls at edges)
Site coverage ratio: 0.4
Floor area ratio: 0.6

Boundary building: Garage on property line
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 2 full stories
Allowed roof types: Gable roof, hip roof, flat roof
Design style: No requirements
Orientation: No requirements
Maximum height / limits: 8.5m (28 ft) ridge height

Client Requirements
Roof type: Gable roof
Basement: No
Floors: 2 full stories
Occupants: 2 adults, 1 planned child

- Office: Mainly home office use
- Overnight guests per year: few
- Rather closed architectural style
- Simple, straightforward construction
- Closed U-shaped kitchen
- Dining places: 4
- Fireplace: No
- Stereo wall: No
- Balcony: No
- Roof terrace: No
- Garage: Yes, double garage with storage room
- Utility garden, greenhouse: No

House Design
- Planner: DIY
- Price estimate: KfW40 standard, house, garage, slab 460,000 EUR (plus 70,000 EUR ancillary costs)
- Personal budget limit for house including kitchen and furniture: 500,000 EUR (plus 70,000 EUR ancillary costs)
- Preferred heating system: Air-to-water heat pump, underfloor heating, photovoltaic with storage

If you have to give up something, which details / features?
- Battery storage
- 10m2 (108 sq ft) less living space (reduce room sizes)
- Carport with storage room instead of garage

Why does the design look like this:
- The proposed garage fits well due to the trapezoidal plot shape
- Ground floor: Entrance area – square with large wardrobe niche
- Ground floor: Technical room near house connections and heat pump
- Ground floor: Garage access via storage room for direct unloading of groceries
- Ground floor: Kitchen is closed off for tidier appearance and to prevent odors spreading to living room
- Ground floor: Living room is relatively wide, avoiding a narrow corridor effect
- Upper floor: Hallway allows direct access to rooms without walking around stairs
- Upper floor: Bathroom located directly above technical room – no need for circulation space
- Upper floor: Office is relatively large due to frequent home office use
- Upper floor: Bedroom on southeast side for morning sun
- Upper floor: Closet / dressing room outside the bedroom for quieter sleeping environment
- Upper floor: Child/guest room as spare room

Less good points:
- Ground floor: Window behind stairs in entrance area
- Upper floor: Window in hallway is not easy to clean

What is the most important question about the floor plan, summarized in 130 characters?
- Are the windows positioned as shown reasonable?
- Is the floor plan okay? Any improvement suggestions?
- Do the room proportions work?
- What additional cost can be expected for the entrance canopy with an extended flat roof?

Thank you very much

jjoschyy schrieb:

Attached is a self-prepared preliminary plan for a single-family house with approximately 150m2 (1,615 sq ft) of living space. This is intended as preparation/foundation for the architect appointment next week.

That actually looks quite reasonable – however: are we talking about a professional architect or a so-called “architect”? (If the former, I would have advised you to do less “pre-work” and not bring your drawings yet, but rather let the expert propose something first, which can then be discussed and possibly revised later).

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In my opinion, the now common possibility of using computer programs and tools to get the feeling that you can professionally design your own house is a significant disadvantage for the actual outcome. People become too focused on the options and, especially, the limitations of the software, and may miss the chance to make necessary intuitive decisions about how they want their home to be.

A builder often becomes attached to their own hard-earned plan, which can limit both their own creativity and that of the later architect or designer. This is partly because it's difficult to accept that the plan they developed might not be very good or practical. After all, they invested a lot of effort in it, and the more effort they put in, the more they tend to defend it.

Therefore, I would recommend setting this plan aside and temporarily forgetting it. Instead, make a list of what personal living comfort means to you in a house. Do you want large windows? What type of heating suits you? Which materials are particularly important to you? And so on.

These fancy programs can create the illusion that a qualified architect might not be that important since you have already largely created your own plan.

First point I noticed: Where is the sink in the upstairs bathroom? (Ah, I just found it in the drawing; in the 3D view, it was hidden behind the wall.)
Also, I would suggest adding greenery to the garage roof. People generally don’t like looking at black bitumen from the lovely windows on the upper floor. Green roofing also protects the roof surface and can double its lifespan (according to roofers). Additionally, it improves the microclimate.

i_b_n_a_n schrieb:

I would green the garage.

According to the plan (floor plan), it already is; only the pictures do not show it currently.

@jjoschyy I like the floor plan. Which software did you use for this?