Hello everyone,
we are planning our single-family home and need your support. We have received the initial designs from the architect and are generally quite satisfied with them. What we really don’t like is the huge hallway on the ground floor, which despite its size doesn’t offer a good place for a coat rack and a bench, but we also can’t think of a better alternative. Due to restrictions (neighboring buildings), we are not allowed to build larger than 12x12m (39x39 ft) and we have to install an elevator so the upper floor is accessible for me as a (part-time) wheelchair user. We want to install a platform lift (probably from the company aritco); it does not have to be directly next to the stairs but could be installed anywhere else in the house.
Development plan / Restrictions
Plot size: approx. 900sqm (9700 sq ft)
Slope: the plot slightly slopes upward towards the back (towards the forest)
Site coverage ratio: 1
Floor area ratio: 2
Parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: max 2 full floors
Roof type: hipped roof
Style: modern
Orientation: terrace facing south (forest)
Other requirements: neighboring buildings: max 12x12m (39x39 ft) footprint plus roof overhang
Owners’ requirements
Style, roof type, building type: “city villa” with two full floors, hipped roof
Basement, floors: no basement
Number of occupants, age: two adults, one of whom is a wheelchair user, currently one child (2 years old), another child planned
Space requirements on the ground floor: guest room (non-negotiable due to frequent overnight guests), guest bathroom with shower, utility room, living area with open kitchen
Space requirements on the upper floor: bedroom with walk-in closet, two children’s rooms, office, bathroom with tub and shower
Office: permanent home office
Number of overnight guests per year: many
Open kitchen with cooking island
Number of dining seats: currently 3, later 4
Fireplace: yes
Music / stereo wall: yes
Balcony, roof terrace: ground floor terrace
Garage, carport: probably a carport, not yet planned
Additional wishes / special features / daily routine: It is particularly important that the entire house is easy to use with a wheelchair.
House design
Who designed it:
- Design comes from the architect of the construction company
Overall, we like the design, but we find the ground floor hallway far too large and impractical. What we have already redesigned is the storage room on the upper floor; here we distributed the space to the bathroom and office. We could also imagine swapping the utility room and guest bathroom on the ground floor; it is important that there is space for a coat rack with a bench near the front door. We had considered planning a storage room under the stairs for the wheelchair and stroller, but currently you would have to walk through the entire hallway to get there, making everything dirty.
We cannot do without the guest room or the office; it doesn’t work for us to combine both in one room as we have guests very often during the week and the home office is used permanently.
I look forward to your ideas.
we are planning our single-family home and need your support. We have received the initial designs from the architect and are generally quite satisfied with them. What we really don’t like is the huge hallway on the ground floor, which despite its size doesn’t offer a good place for a coat rack and a bench, but we also can’t think of a better alternative. Due to restrictions (neighboring buildings), we are not allowed to build larger than 12x12m (39x39 ft) and we have to install an elevator so the upper floor is accessible for me as a (part-time) wheelchair user. We want to install a platform lift (probably from the company aritco); it does not have to be directly next to the stairs but could be installed anywhere else in the house.
Development plan / Restrictions
Plot size: approx. 900sqm (9700 sq ft)
Slope: the plot slightly slopes upward towards the back (towards the forest)
Site coverage ratio: 1
Floor area ratio: 2
Parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: max 2 full floors
Roof type: hipped roof
Style: modern
Orientation: terrace facing south (forest)
Other requirements: neighboring buildings: max 12x12m (39x39 ft) footprint plus roof overhang
Owners’ requirements
Style, roof type, building type: “city villa” with two full floors, hipped roof
Basement, floors: no basement
Number of occupants, age: two adults, one of whom is a wheelchair user, currently one child (2 years old), another child planned
Space requirements on the ground floor: guest room (non-negotiable due to frequent overnight guests), guest bathroom with shower, utility room, living area with open kitchen
Space requirements on the upper floor: bedroom with walk-in closet, two children’s rooms, office, bathroom with tub and shower
Office: permanent home office
Number of overnight guests per year: many
Open kitchen with cooking island
Number of dining seats: currently 3, later 4
Fireplace: yes
Music / stereo wall: yes
Balcony, roof terrace: ground floor terrace
Garage, carport: probably a carport, not yet planned
Additional wishes / special features / daily routine: It is particularly important that the entire house is easy to use with a wheelchair.
House design
Who designed it:
- Design comes from the architect of the construction company
Overall, we like the design, but we find the ground floor hallway far too large and impractical. What we have already redesigned is the storage room on the upper floor; here we distributed the space to the bathroom and office. We could also imagine swapping the utility room and guest bathroom on the ground floor; it is important that there is space for a coat rack with a bench near the front door. We had considered planning a storage room under the stairs for the wheelchair and stroller, but currently you would have to walk through the entire hallway to get there, making everything dirty.
We cannot do without the guest room or the office; it doesn’t work for us to combine both in one room as we have guests very often during the week and the home office is used permanently.
I look forward to your ideas.
Draw the existing or desired furniture with clearance space into the floor plan. Include a movement radius of at least 1.5 m (5 feet) for wheelchair accessibility.
Four dining seats for four people plus guests are not enough. You will need six.
Not a single bathroom has enough space to transfer from the wheelchair to the toilet sideways.
Plan the guest room on the ground floor so that it can later be used as your bedroom.
Four dining seats for four people plus guests are not enough. You will need six.
Not a single bathroom has enough space to transfer from the wheelchair to the toilet sideways.
Plan the guest room on the ground floor so that it can later be used as your bedroom.
haydee schrieb:
Plan the guest room on the ground floor so that it can later be your bedroom. Why is that? If the house ends up child-free, changing the function of rooms usually makes more sense than moving down to (and limiting yourself to) the ground floor. Especially since I don’t see this as a potential two-family house – that would require a different design approach.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
11ant schrieb:
Angular bays, it seems to me ;-) The "bay window" with only extra costs and no real benefit (as mentioned, double-pitched roof, it is not necessary to avoid monotony nor does it add much value) is still there. At least the layout has worsened, and at first glance, I don’t see any budget-friendly changes to the building’s structure or size. The elevator is shown as just an empty cabin – without a drive system or counterweight, it practically fills the entire shaft. Does its machinery fit in the attic? Yeah... I wasn’t ready to give up on the bay window just yet. We’re now waiting for the cost estimate, and if it doesn’t fit our budget, we’ll have to make compromises there. The first offer was well within our budget, so our focus was more on optimizing space rather than costs. For the elevator, we’re planning to use a homelift from Aritco (model S12). I don’t have enough technical knowledge to fully understand the drive system (screw and nut drive).haydee schrieb:
Mark the existing or desired furniture and circulation space in the floor plan. Include a movement radius of at least 1.5 m (5 feet) for the wheelchair.
Four dining seats for four people plus guests are not enough. You’ll need six.
None of the toilets have enough space to transfer sideways from the wheelchair to the toilet. Yes, we are doing that right now. Thanks for the tip about the dining table; we will take that into account.
I still have the dream of fitting a kitchen island in as well; we’ll have to see if that works with the dining table.
For the toilet on the ground floor, it should work since we won’t plan a shower wall so that it’s possible to transfer from the shower to the toilet. We’ll probably have to use a classic shower curtain there. In the upstairs bathroom, we will remove the bench around the bathtub to create enough space next to the toilet. Instead, there will likely be a seat stool, which is more flexible and can easily be pushed aside.
haydee schrieb:
Design the guest room on the ground floor so that it can later become your bedroom That was suggested by ypg as well, and it would be feasible with the current concept given the size of the guest room.
gsn24 schrieb:
Yeah.. I didn’t want to give up on the bay window just yet. We’re waiting for the cost estimate, and if it doesn’t fit the budget, we’ll make compromises there. The first quote was well within range, so for us it was more about optimizing the space than cutting costs. Compromises belong in laboratory medicine. When it comes to house planning, “reverse auctions” are not exactly a best practice, even if they’re modern and popular. I personally wouldn’t even plan such “little bay windows” from the perspective of passive building protection. With timber construction, they are less complicated to build, at least structurally and somewhat thermally, but with masonry you essentially push them out of the comparison field—similar to the standard EH40, which also requires more effort to meet. As I said, there’s no need to panic about standard designs without small bays.
gsn24 schrieb:
For the elevator, we’re planning a home lift from Aritco (model S12). I don’t have enough technical knowledge to understand the drive system (screw-and-nut drive system). I don’t fully get it either, but apparently they manage to keep it quite compact.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
Try drawing a layout to see if the downstairs bedroom with a double bed and wheelchair access would work. It looks a bit too small.
@11ant, we don’t know what condition the original poster has or how quickly their mobility might worsen. Having a bedroom downstairs could be helpful well before the children move out. Elevator or not, a quick trip is not always possible and can sometimes be exhausting.
@11ant, we don’t know what condition the original poster has or how quickly their mobility might worsen. Having a bedroom downstairs could be helpful well before the children move out. Elevator or not, a quick trip is not always possible and can sometimes be exhausting.
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