ᐅ Single-family home, approximately 160 m², Bauhaus style; first design draft based on our requirements
Created on: 23 Aug 2019 22:03
N
Notstrom
Hello everyone,
we've been looking forward to this for a long time, and now we can finally share our first draft floor plan/design for discussion. We’re very curious to hear your feedback.
Those of you who have seen my thread before (https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/efh-Bauhausstil-Wohnfläche-180m-mit-Doppelgarage.31853/) know what to expect, and here comes the gem.
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 530m² (about 5,700 sq ft)
Slope: No
Site coverage ratio (Grundflächenzahl): see screenshot
Floor area ratio (Geschossflächenzahl): see screenshot
Building envelope, building line, and boundaries: see screenshot
Edge development: see screenshot
Number of parking spaces: double garage
Number of floors: 2
Roof style: flat roof
Architectural style: Bauhaus
Orientation
Maximum height/limitations
Other requirements
The green highlighted area represents our plot => Parcel 8479
Homeowner Requirements
Style, roof type, building type: Bauhaus style, flat roof
Basement, floors: Basement yes, ground floor, upper floor
Number of residents, ages: 3 people, potentially 4: 33, 30, 2 years old
Space requirements on ground and upper floors: Initially planned 180 m² (about 1,940 sq ft) on two stories, now reduced to 160 m² (about 1,720 sq ft) after feedback, with the ground floor slightly larger than the upper floor, around 75–85 m² (810–915 sq ft)
Office: Family use or home office? Yes, in the basement (guest room <-> office)
Overnight guests per year: Hard to say, probably about 10 times per year with 2–5 guests each time
Open or closed architecture: Rather open
Conservative or modern construction: Rather modern
Open kitchen, cooking island: Island
Number of dining spaces: 1
Fireplace: Yes
Music/sound system wall: Our soundbar is sufficient
Balcony, roof terrace: Maybe, undecided (Architect’s comment: How often do you really go out for a beer on the balcony/roof terrace instead of the nice terrace on the ground floor?)
Garage, carport: Double garage, possibly single garage with carport
Kitchen garden, greenhouse: Small but nice (a few tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchinis…)
House Design
Planning by: Architect
What do you particularly like? Why? We like the architecture with the two offset rectangles, though we wonder if the extra cost (no price estimate yet) justifies this. We believe it is structurally more challenging than a simple "cube."
What don’t you like? Why? The size of the bedroom/walk-in closet/children’s room. It feels like the bedroom is missing 2–5 m² (about 20–55 sq ft), as is the second children’s room.
Price estimate according to architect/planner: The initial draft was around 550,000 EUR
Personal price limit for the house, including fixtures: 620,000 EUR
Preferred heating technology: Indifferent, but tendency toward heat pump.
If you had to give up something, which details/finishes
- You can give up: the current shape (nice but a cube would also do)
- You cannot give up: space
Why is the design the way it is now? For example:
Standard design from the planner? This is the second design resulting from last week’s discussion with us, and we find it very successful.
Which wishes were implemented by the architect? Absolutely, plus the idea he had to move the kitchen during development. The guest room has now moved to the basement, allowing more space on the ground floor (beforehand, it felt quite cramped and “squeezed”).
What makes it especially good or bad in your opinion? The architecture
...and now I’ll leave you alone with our house
Upper floor plan:
Basement:
we've been looking forward to this for a long time, and now we can finally share our first draft floor plan/design for discussion. We’re very curious to hear your feedback.
Those of you who have seen my thread before (https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/efh-Bauhausstil-Wohnfläche-180m-mit-Doppelgarage.31853/) know what to expect, and here comes the gem.
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 530m² (about 5,700 sq ft)
Slope: No
Site coverage ratio (Grundflächenzahl): see screenshot
Floor area ratio (Geschossflächenzahl): see screenshot
Building envelope, building line, and boundaries: see screenshot
Edge development: see screenshot
Number of parking spaces: double garage
Number of floors: 2
Roof style: flat roof
Architectural style: Bauhaus
Orientation
Maximum height/limitations
Other requirements
The green highlighted area represents our plot => Parcel 8479
Homeowner Requirements
Style, roof type, building type: Bauhaus style, flat roof
Basement, floors: Basement yes, ground floor, upper floor
Number of residents, ages: 3 people, potentially 4: 33, 30, 2 years old
Space requirements on ground and upper floors: Initially planned 180 m² (about 1,940 sq ft) on two stories, now reduced to 160 m² (about 1,720 sq ft) after feedback, with the ground floor slightly larger than the upper floor, around 75–85 m² (810–915 sq ft)
Office: Family use or home office? Yes, in the basement (guest room <-> office)
Overnight guests per year: Hard to say, probably about 10 times per year with 2–5 guests each time
Open or closed architecture: Rather open
Conservative or modern construction: Rather modern
Open kitchen, cooking island: Island
Number of dining spaces: 1
Fireplace: Yes
Music/sound system wall: Our soundbar is sufficient
Balcony, roof terrace: Maybe, undecided (Architect’s comment: How often do you really go out for a beer on the balcony/roof terrace instead of the nice terrace on the ground floor?)
Garage, carport: Double garage, possibly single garage with carport
Kitchen garden, greenhouse: Small but nice (a few tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchinis…)
House Design
Planning by: Architect
What do you particularly like? Why? We like the architecture with the two offset rectangles, though we wonder if the extra cost (no price estimate yet) justifies this. We believe it is structurally more challenging than a simple "cube."
What don’t you like? Why? The size of the bedroom/walk-in closet/children’s room. It feels like the bedroom is missing 2–5 m² (about 20–55 sq ft), as is the second children’s room.
Price estimate according to architect/planner: The initial draft was around 550,000 EUR
Personal price limit for the house, including fixtures: 620,000 EUR
Preferred heating technology: Indifferent, but tendency toward heat pump.
If you had to give up something, which details/finishes
- You can give up: the current shape (nice but a cube would also do)
- You cannot give up: space
Why is the design the way it is now? For example:
Standard design from the planner? This is the second design resulting from last week’s discussion with us, and we find it very successful.
Which wishes were implemented by the architect? Absolutely, plus the idea he had to move the kitchen during development. The guest room has now moved to the basement, allowing more space on the ground floor (beforehand, it felt quite cramped and “squeezed”).
What makes it especially good or bad in your opinion? The architecture
...and now I’ll leave you alone with our house
Upper floor plan:
Basement:
Notstrom schrieb:
There is still hope for the “cube design.” Since this is quite discouraging for the architect and us: Can you recommend floor plans or houses in the Bauhaus style where you say, “Wow! This is the benchmark”? I definitely recommend avoiding any architect who, as seems to have happened here, tries to slap down a “Wow, this is the benchmark” design—like Schober in that bank commercial showing off pictures of his house, cars, horses, and horse caretakers. Build the house for yourselves, not for the envy of your theatre-season neighbors.
On the superficial design level—one-cube Bauhaus versus two-cube Bauhaus (like front-wheel drive versus rear-wheel drive)—you’ll find everything but no real solution. First, the house has to be fundamentally “right” or “fit.” The style comes later, through decoration and detailing, not at the concept stage. Trying to be a star chef at the drawing board usually doesn’t make the clients happy.
Notstrom schrieb:
We come from Ba-Wü, Exactly: the Hallig of South Baden, famous for its dream ship captain villas built on mounds. But at least it’s much closer than NRW to the Weissenhof Estate, if you ever want to show the wannabe Le Corbusier some originals.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
kaho674 schrieb:
My first thought would be something like this:
To compensate, I would probably shorten the kitchen/dining area a bit and move it towards the bottom of the plan.
That would also give more space for child 2. But the offset to the upper floor would have to be completely reconsidered. At that point, you might as well start from scratch.
Swap? I never said that. The fact remains that your living room is very "public." If the bathroom door is also located almost within that space, the restroom becomes very public as well. Not exactly cozy. I’d rather vacuum in the entrance hall.
Also just a matter of taste. For a new build, this would be a cosmetic flaw for me.
By the way, I would agree with that. The bathroom is nothing special, but that can still be changed. From your picture, I don’t really see any changes. What did you add there?
We definitely need to redesign the bathroom; we don’t like it as it is.
guckuck2 schrieb:
The cramped entrance area downstairs is annoying. I also don’t quite understand what purpose a vestibule (also called an entry hall or porch) serves nowadays. My partner would prefer the vestibule to have more "privacy." For example, so the mail carrier can’t look directly into the living areas. That sounds reasonable to me.
guckuck2 schrieb:
The kitchen/dining area is very generous, but the space between the dining and living area is wasted, and the living area is small. That’s true; we also don’t like that.
guckuck2 schrieb:
I think the house currently suffers from the central staircase, around which everything else has to be arranged.
The planned room layout doesn’t seem realistically achievable given the proposed living space. We feel the same way. I’d even describe it like this: “We have a design based on a certain architectural concept, onto which they try to fit our wishes regarding the floor plan.”
ypg schrieb:
I wouldn’t plan a child’s bedroom under 3 meters (9 feet 10 inches) in a new build. At least not if there are only two kids. With three bedrooms you have to compromise, but for the usual number of rooms, some dimensions should be right. 3 meters? What do you mean by 3 meters? The room is about 15 square meters (160 square feet). Which dimension are you referring to with the 3 meters?
ypg schrieb:
The walk-in closet is too narrow. With two wardrobes, there’s only a 75cm (30 inch) walkway left… The walk-in closet is realistically only 5 sqm (54 sq ft) in size… That’s a good point… It feels like we’re going in circles. In the initial draft, only one wardrobe fit; now there are two, but just barely in terms of width. Somehow it’s always behind schedule.
kaho674 schrieb:
I would probably give up on the staircase completely and start over. Too many weak points in the rooms.
I get the feeling the architect is desperately trying to be original on the outside. That usually seems unoriginal to me. It’s a shame in terms of time, but a valid argument. I’ll write an email later and see how he responds.
11ant schrieb:
If you place a straight, single-flight staircase right in the center — which inevitably gives it dominance — then it’s not just a cosmetic issue, but a central problem if it leads the wrong way. That means you can’t just rotate it; a fundamental redesign is necessary. Agreed.
Otus11 schrieb:
Personally, I don’t really like the white flat-roof boxes (I might like looking at them but wouldn’t want to live in one and, as someone from northern Germany, I’d be annoyed by the green algae that grow on the facade after a few years). I prefer clear edges visually and brickwork with a pitched roof without overhang. Green facades? Because…???
apokolok schrieb:
Is the architect making you another design with a different (not straight) staircase? Yes, he promised us another cube design; but I assume it will mostly be a copy & paste of the floor plan from this proposal.
11ant schrieb:
I definitely recommend avoiding an architect who wants to put a “wow, this is a benchmark” design on the table — like that guy in the bank commercial with pictures of his house, cars, horses, and horse handlers. Build the house for yourselves, not to impress the neighbors with theater subscriptions sitting beside you. Just to defend our architect: so far, we haven’t commissioned him to build any kind of benchmark. We roughly explained what we find attractive, and he drew two drafts: 1) a cube and 2) this one. We worked further on number 2. We didn’t realize at first glance that it would be so unsuitably impractical, but I think personal taste and interests (vestibule?) play a role here too.
11ant schrieb:
At the design level — cube Bauhaus style vs. two-cube Bauhaus style (like front-wheel drive vs. rear-wheel drive) — you find everything but a solution. The house first has to be “right” / “fit.” Style is added later at the decorating and finishing stage, not at the conceptual level. Trying to be a master chef from the drafting board rarely delights the homeowners. A bit off-topic but still: I appreciate the hint. We will tell the architect that we want to approach the house design starting from the room concept, not the other way around.
Notstrom schrieb:
From your picture, I don’t really see any change. What did you install there?Hehe, a spot-the-difference puzzle. The living room is bigger... try to find the difference.Notstrom schrieb:
3 meters? What do you mean by 3 meters? That's about 15m² (160 ft²) of area. What dimension are the 3 meters referring to?Meter is a unit of length, not area.
I am referring to the 2.8 x ... the room width.
ypg schrieb:
A meter is a unit of length, not area.
I am referring to the 2.8x ... the room width. Thank you, I was already aware that it is a unit of length, but I wasn’t sure what the 3 meters referred to. One of the children’s bedrooms would meet this measurement, but the other one wouldn’t, you’re right.
Notstrom schrieb:
Thanks, I was already aware of the length measurement; I just wasn’t sure what you were referencing with the 3 meters (10 feet). One kids' room would meet this measurement, but the other wouldn’t—you’re right about that.Sorry, I forgot something:
I’m also in favor of an alternative option. There are too many tight corners.
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