Hello dear community,
I’m voluntarily putting myself on the chopping block to present the current status of our planning.
We are currently planning the construction of our single-family home. We have a plot measuring 30 x 18.8 m (98 x 62 feet). The plot is oriented northeast-southwest. There are neighbors on the north and south sides. On the east side is the street/driveway, and opposite is a newly built multi-family building. Therefore, we want the living rooms and terrace to face west.
We decided to work with a regional general contractor (GC) who individually designs and builds each house. It will be built as a solid masonry structure according to the Energy Saving Ordinance. The basic floor plan without furniture comes from the GC’s planner and is based on our discussions. I then redrew it and furnished it to represent the "worst-case" scenario. What does this mean? For example, we don’t always have 10 people in the dining area; a table can be added if needed. However, there should be enough space for that. The same applies to the study. This will be a study 99% of the time. If we have children in the future, it would need to become a combined study/children’s room. Space should be available for this as well. The second work area would then move from the children’s room to the gallery. In this sense, the furnishing partly represents more of a future scenario than the present one. In any case, all dimensions are realistic.
Now to the questionnaire:
Development plan/restrictions
Plot size: 564 m² (6069 ft²)
Slope: none
Floor area ratio: 0.4
Gross floor area ratio: 0.8
Building envelope, building line and boundary: 3 m (10 ft) all around
Edge development
Number of parking spaces: 4
Number of floors: 2 full stories
Roof type: free design
Style: free design
Orientation: northwest-southeast
Maximum heights/limits: none
Other requirements: none
Requirements of the homeowners
Style, roof type, building type: 2 full stories
Number of people, age: He 34, She 27, no children planned (still “worst-case” planning with one child)
Space requirements on ground floor and upper floor:
Ground floor: open living area, utility room, shower toilet, space for wardrobe
Upper floor: gallery with workspace, bedroom, study/child’s room, multifunction room (office 2/child’s room)
Office: He works 100% from home; She works 40% from home (if a child arrives, a small workspace will be set up in the gallery)
Guests per year: 0–1
Open or closed architecture: open
Conservative or modern building style: modern
Open kitchen, cooking island: cooking island – kitchen will be included
Number of dining seats: 10 for family gatherings (3–5 times per year)
Fireplace: no
Music/sound system wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: double carport
Utility garden, greenhouse: garden shed
Other wishes, special features, daily routine, reasons why certain things are included or excluded:
Functional rooms on the east side (street side), living rooms facing west (not overlooked), terrace to the west. We are not really “south-terrace” people; I prefer to stay inside.
I’m still unsure about the actual feel of the open living area (whether it feels like a narrow corridor or not). This can probably be visually balanced by furnishing, color scheme, and decoration to reduce any sense of “length.”
House design
Planning by: planner of the construction company
What do you particularly like? Why? Open living space, west orientation
What do you dislike? Why?
Possibly not enough wardrobe space, although we currently manage well with 2 linear meters (6.5 feet). The stairway entrance in the foyer — we’ve already accepted that compromise.
Estimated price according to architect/planner: 260,000€
Personal budget limit for house including fittings (excluding building-related additional costs, garden, carport etc.): 300,000€
Preferred heating technology: air-to-water heat pump
If you had to give up something, which details or extensions could you do without?
- Could do without: half-landing staircase, kitchen directly at the house entrance
- Could not do without: orientation of living areas to the west, bedroom to the north
Why did the design turn out this way?
For example: The design developed through joint discussions with the GC’s planner, based on the room program, the plot, and our orientation preferences.
What is the most important or fundamental question about the floor plan in 130 characters or less?
Is the floor plan coherent, or have we developed blind spots and overlooked major planning mistakes?
With that, many thanks!
I’m voluntarily putting myself on the chopping block to present the current status of our planning.
We are currently planning the construction of our single-family home. We have a plot measuring 30 x 18.8 m (98 x 62 feet). The plot is oriented northeast-southwest. There are neighbors on the north and south sides. On the east side is the street/driveway, and opposite is a newly built multi-family building. Therefore, we want the living rooms and terrace to face west.
We decided to work with a regional general contractor (GC) who individually designs and builds each house. It will be built as a solid masonry structure according to the Energy Saving Ordinance. The basic floor plan without furniture comes from the GC’s planner and is based on our discussions. I then redrew it and furnished it to represent the "worst-case" scenario. What does this mean? For example, we don’t always have 10 people in the dining area; a table can be added if needed. However, there should be enough space for that. The same applies to the study. This will be a study 99% of the time. If we have children in the future, it would need to become a combined study/children’s room. Space should be available for this as well. The second work area would then move from the children’s room to the gallery. In this sense, the furnishing partly represents more of a future scenario than the present one. In any case, all dimensions are realistic.
Now to the questionnaire:
Development plan/restrictions
Plot size: 564 m² (6069 ft²)
Slope: none
Floor area ratio: 0.4
Gross floor area ratio: 0.8
Building envelope, building line and boundary: 3 m (10 ft) all around
Edge development
Number of parking spaces: 4
Number of floors: 2 full stories
Roof type: free design
Style: free design
Orientation: northwest-southeast
Maximum heights/limits: none
Other requirements: none
Requirements of the homeowners
Style, roof type, building type: 2 full stories
Number of people, age: He 34, She 27, no children planned (still “worst-case” planning with one child)
Space requirements on ground floor and upper floor:
Ground floor: open living area, utility room, shower toilet, space for wardrobe
Upper floor: gallery with workspace, bedroom, study/child’s room, multifunction room (office 2/child’s room)
Office: He works 100% from home; She works 40% from home (if a child arrives, a small workspace will be set up in the gallery)
Guests per year: 0–1
Open or closed architecture: open
Conservative or modern building style: modern
Open kitchen, cooking island: cooking island – kitchen will be included
Number of dining seats: 10 for family gatherings (3–5 times per year)
Fireplace: no
Music/sound system wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: double carport
Utility garden, greenhouse: garden shed
Other wishes, special features, daily routine, reasons why certain things are included or excluded:
Functional rooms on the east side (street side), living rooms facing west (not overlooked), terrace to the west. We are not really “south-terrace” people; I prefer to stay inside.
I’m still unsure about the actual feel of the open living area (whether it feels like a narrow corridor or not). This can probably be visually balanced by furnishing, color scheme, and decoration to reduce any sense of “length.”
House design
Planning by: planner of the construction company
What do you particularly like? Why? Open living space, west orientation
What do you dislike? Why?
Possibly not enough wardrobe space, although we currently manage well with 2 linear meters (6.5 feet). The stairway entrance in the foyer — we’ve already accepted that compromise.
Estimated price according to architect/planner: 260,000€
Personal budget limit for house including fittings (excluding building-related additional costs, garden, carport etc.): 300,000€
Preferred heating technology: air-to-water heat pump
If you had to give up something, which details or extensions could you do without?
- Could do without: half-landing staircase, kitchen directly at the house entrance
- Could not do without: orientation of living areas to the west, bedroom to the north
Why did the design turn out this way?
For example: The design developed through joint discussions with the GC’s planner, based on the room program, the plot, and our orientation preferences.
What is the most important or fundamental question about the floor plan in 130 characters or less?
Is the floor plan coherent, or have we developed blind spots and overlooked major planning mistakes?
With that, many thanks!
A privacy screen (hedge) is shown on the south side of the terrace, facing the main part of the garden – what is the reason for this? It artificially makes your garden appear smaller.
I would try to orient the floor-to-ceiling windows more toward the south and west, opening the house in both directions (possibly with corner windows). Although this slightly reduces the kitchen’s usable area, it visually makes better use of the 250m² (2700 sq ft) garden.
If the area to the south is not pleasant (neighboring buildings or similar), you could still adjust the house’s position. But for that, it would be best to share an aerial photo (Google Maps) or site plan with us. You can always blur out the street names.
I would try to orient the floor-to-ceiling windows more toward the south and west, opening the house in both directions (possibly with corner windows). Although this slightly reduces the kitchen’s usable area, it visually makes better use of the 250m² (2700 sq ft) garden.
If the area to the south is not pleasant (neighboring buildings or similar), you could still adjust the house’s position. But for that, it would be best to share an aerial photo (Google Maps) or site plan with us. You can always blur out the street names.
The house should also be opened towards the garden. South-facing light is very important inside the house during winter.
Basically, the route to the utility room (which you use several times a day with a ladder, vacuum cleaner, laundry basket, or groceries) is far too complicated and long. And all that just because of a shower—who is that for? I don’t see a guest room there.
And by the way:
Please always abbreviate “children’s room” as “children’s room.” Fortunately, the times of “KZ” are long gone.
A staircase directly at the entrance hall wouldn’t be my choice either.
I usually associate a slim design with a slim staircase—it looks the most elegant.
Basically, the route to the utility room (which you use several times a day with a ladder, vacuum cleaner, laundry basket, or groceries) is far too complicated and long. And all that just because of a shower—who is that for? I don’t see a guest room there.
And by the way:
hbf2021 schrieb:
wandert
dann vom KZ
hbf2021 schrieb:
AZ2/GZ/KZ)
Please always abbreviate “children’s room” as “children’s room.” Fortunately, the times of “KZ” are long gone.
A staircase directly at the entrance hall wouldn’t be my choice either.
I usually associate a slim design with a slim staircase—it looks the most elegant.
The utility room is very inconveniently located. You need to access it frequently—to grab cleaning cloths (for example, to clean the stairs), a hand broom to remove dirt from the entrance area, drinks to take upstairs, the vacuum cleaner, the laundry basket, and so on... and you always have to go through the living area and the kitchen, which is very awkward.
Best regards
Sabine
Best regards
Sabine
I can fully understand the idea of a west-facing terrace, but as @ypg mentioned, from October to March especially, the house will be quite dark even during the middle of the day.
For example, I would always orient bedrooms more toward the northeast rather than the west. In the west, rooms receive strong afternoon and evening sunlight in summer, which can make them uncomfortably warm in the evenings.
In general, the rooms on the upper floor and their entrances—especially the bedrooms—are arranged in such a way that you often walk into the closet units.
I also see an issue with accessibility to the storage area in the utility room. Especially for a planned two-person household like yours, I would consider allocating space for the washer and dryer on the upper floor.
For example, I would always orient bedrooms more toward the northeast rather than the west. In the west, rooms receive strong afternoon and evening sunlight in summer, which can make them uncomfortably warm in the evenings.
In general, the rooms on the upper floor and their entrances—especially the bedrooms—are arranged in such a way that you often walk into the closet units.
I also see an issue with accessibility to the storage area in the utility room. Especially for a planned two-person household like yours, I would consider allocating space for the washer and dryer on the upper floor.
pagoni2020 schrieb:
We have a similar house layout, so I know that the "corridor" needs careful planning to avoid it feeling awkward and unappealing to some.I agree with you, we also have a "corridor" like that and it sometimes feels a bit oppressive and just too long... I wasn’t really aware of that at first. You definitely need to break it up a bit, maybe with a fireplace as a “room divider” or something similar.Perhaps a bay window, like an extended dining area to the outside, could help too.
For us, it doesn’t feel very cozy because it’s so long, you can see everything at once, and the dining table is awkwardly placed in the middle of the whole room.
P
pagoni20204 Aug 2020 12:32chrisw81 schrieb:
For us, it doesn’t feel very cozy because the space is very long and you can see everything at once, plus the dining table is awkwardly placed right in the middle of the room.I quickly skimmed through your own thread... wow, things got intense there. Still, I think you can make something nice out of your house. Why not bring someone along whose work you’ve seen and who can design spaces well? I believe you just have to accept that designing attractive interiors might not be your strength. So find that person—a professional you both trust. Maybe your partner isn’t confident with design either, but that doesn’t matter as long as you find the right expert together and trust them.
From some of your pictures, I can see you like beautiful things but struggle to realize them; I’m the same in certain areas. In those cases, I step back completely and hire someone who can deliver a stylish result.
When I was younger, I once hired a woman who seemed professionally competent to design my apartment; I paid her well for her time. The outcome was great, and until it was finished, I just held back and paid for what she recommended.
But you have to be willing to let go of certain things like a piano, your fireplace, or your dining table.
Until now, gray was often seen as gloomy, but today it’s possible to create beautiful designs with it.
And... if the problem is really with one or two windows, I’d have them quickly removed and enlarged. In my old house, I often had to use a heavy-duty rotary hammer (Hilti) or had doors moved around—but only AFTER you’ve found someone with a fitting, modern design sense.
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