Hello everyone,
At our developer, a customer who had reserved a plot of land dropped out. Since the other plot faces south / southwest, we didn’t hesitate long and switched to that plot. The new plot is smaller, so we gave up on our bungalow dream. The plot number is 5.
To remind you: The plot is tied to the developer.
I have been thinking over the past few days about the arrangement and design of the rooms and the plot, and I would first like to know if the concept is okay. I am not concerned with details inside the rooms such as windows, doors, or bathroom design. That’s not possible anyway since I created the floor plan myself based on Gussek Haus floor plans. However, I tried to design it as well as possible. For this reason, I want to share the floor plan here for discussion. I’m mainly looking for feedback on the layout and room arrangement, as well as ideas, suggestions, or tips. Maybe you’ll also spot things that “just don’t work” or are not practical for everyday living.
I created the floor plan with RoomSketcher, but only used the free version, so many features are limited. Please ignore the room dimensions on the upper floor. There is a dormer in the area of the home office.
A few more details about the house.
Roof pitch 38°
Knee wall (Drempel) 100cm (39 inches)
External dimensions 12.85 x 9.60 m (42.2 x 31.5 feet) (enlarged, original dimensions of Gussek Haus models are smaller)
Unfortunately, I cannot show internal room dimensions because RoomSketcher does not allow it.
Attached again is the completed questionnaire.
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 676m²
Slope: NO
Site coverage ratio: 0.4 (allowed exceedance 25 out of 100)
Floor area ratio: 0.6
Building envelope, building line, and boundaries: On the north side / south side approx. 20.5 m (67 feet) wide, west and east sides approx. 33 m (108 feet) wide, 3 m (10 feet) building setback on each side, rectangular plot, clearly visible in the pictures
Edge construction setback: 3 m (10 feet)
Number of parking spaces: no requirement
Number of stories: maximum 2 full stories
Roof style: Gable roof, hipped roof
Other requirements: Garage must be 5 m (16 feet) from the property boundary. Garage on the west side because the curb is lowered there.
Homeowners’ Requirements
Architectural style, roof type, building type: Doesn’t matter, initially considered a house with a gable roof, there is a dormer in the home office area
Basement, number of floors: No basement due to high groundwater level
Number of occupants, ages: 4 people aged 36 (female), 37 (male), 3 (child), 1 (child)
Space requirements on ground floor and upper floor:
Ground floor: Living/dining/kitchen area, utility room, guest WC with shower, hallway with coat area and stairs to upper floor, guest room / playroom
Upper floor: Master bedroom, 2 children’s rooms, bathroom, storage room, office
Office use: Family use or home office? Home office combined with family use
Guests per year: 1–2 times
Open or closed architecture: Closed architecture?
Conservative or modern style: A mix of both
Open kitchen, kitchen island: Closed kitchen with island would be nice but not a must; open kitchen is also an option
Number of dining seats: 4, with the option for 6
Fireplace: No
Music / stereo wall: Sound system in the living room
Balcony, roof terrace: No
Garage, carport: Space for 2 cars is required, preferably 3 to 4. Currently considering a garage (3 x 6 m / 9.8 x 19.7 feet) with a carport (3.6 m / 12 feet) in front, not sure if that works. Plus 2 parking spaces in front of the house.
Utility garden, greenhouse: No
Additional wishes / special features / daily routine, including reasons why certain things should or shouldn’t be:
House Design
Who created the design:
- DIY - copy and combination of Gussek Haus models Lindenallee, Kiefernallee variant 1, and Buchenallee variant 2
What do you especially like? Why?
- Large closed kitchen with island and direct / short access to the terrace
- Living room close to the terrace
- Guest / playroom on the ground floor
- Storage room on the upper floor with washing machine and dryer
- Utility room with washing machine and dryer (yes, twice)
- 6 rooms
- Layout of rooms on the upper floor
What do you not like? Why?
- Location of the home office on the upper floor is not ideal in my view, but I could live with it
Price estimate from architect/planner: No new estimate so far
Personal price limit for house including features: 400,000
Preferred heating system: Heat pump
Why does the design look like it does now? For example:
Copy-paste of Gussek Haus models Lindenallee, Kiefernallee variant 1, and Buchenallee variant 2
What is the most important fundamental question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?
Is the room layout okay?
At our developer, a customer who had reserved a plot of land dropped out. Since the other plot faces south / southwest, we didn’t hesitate long and switched to that plot. The new plot is smaller, so we gave up on our bungalow dream. The plot number is 5.
To remind you: The plot is tied to the developer.
I have been thinking over the past few days about the arrangement and design of the rooms and the plot, and I would first like to know if the concept is okay. I am not concerned with details inside the rooms such as windows, doors, or bathroom design. That’s not possible anyway since I created the floor plan myself based on Gussek Haus floor plans. However, I tried to design it as well as possible. For this reason, I want to share the floor plan here for discussion. I’m mainly looking for feedback on the layout and room arrangement, as well as ideas, suggestions, or tips. Maybe you’ll also spot things that “just don’t work” or are not practical for everyday living.
I created the floor plan with RoomSketcher, but only used the free version, so many features are limited. Please ignore the room dimensions on the upper floor. There is a dormer in the area of the home office.
A few more details about the house.
Roof pitch 38°
Knee wall (Drempel) 100cm (39 inches)
External dimensions 12.85 x 9.60 m (42.2 x 31.5 feet) (enlarged, original dimensions of Gussek Haus models are smaller)
Unfortunately, I cannot show internal room dimensions because RoomSketcher does not allow it.
Attached again is the completed questionnaire.
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 676m²
Slope: NO
Site coverage ratio: 0.4 (allowed exceedance 25 out of 100)
Floor area ratio: 0.6
Building envelope, building line, and boundaries: On the north side / south side approx. 20.5 m (67 feet) wide, west and east sides approx. 33 m (108 feet) wide, 3 m (10 feet) building setback on each side, rectangular plot, clearly visible in the pictures
Edge construction setback: 3 m (10 feet)
Number of parking spaces: no requirement
Number of stories: maximum 2 full stories
Roof style: Gable roof, hipped roof
Other requirements: Garage must be 5 m (16 feet) from the property boundary. Garage on the west side because the curb is lowered there.
Homeowners’ Requirements
Architectural style, roof type, building type: Doesn’t matter, initially considered a house with a gable roof, there is a dormer in the home office area
Basement, number of floors: No basement due to high groundwater level
Number of occupants, ages: 4 people aged 36 (female), 37 (male), 3 (child), 1 (child)
Space requirements on ground floor and upper floor:
Ground floor: Living/dining/kitchen area, utility room, guest WC with shower, hallway with coat area and stairs to upper floor, guest room / playroom
Upper floor: Master bedroom, 2 children’s rooms, bathroom, storage room, office
Office use: Family use or home office? Home office combined with family use
Guests per year: 1–2 times
Open or closed architecture: Closed architecture?
Conservative or modern style: A mix of both
Open kitchen, kitchen island: Closed kitchen with island would be nice but not a must; open kitchen is also an option
Number of dining seats: 4, with the option for 6
Fireplace: No
Music / stereo wall: Sound system in the living room
Balcony, roof terrace: No
Garage, carport: Space for 2 cars is required, preferably 3 to 4. Currently considering a garage (3 x 6 m / 9.8 x 19.7 feet) with a carport (3.6 m / 12 feet) in front, not sure if that works. Plus 2 parking spaces in front of the house.
Utility garden, greenhouse: No
Additional wishes / special features / daily routine, including reasons why certain things should or shouldn’t be:
House Design
Who created the design:
- DIY - copy and combination of Gussek Haus models Lindenallee, Kiefernallee variant 1, and Buchenallee variant 2
What do you especially like? Why?
- Large closed kitchen with island and direct / short access to the terrace
- Living room close to the terrace
- Guest / playroom on the ground floor
- Storage room on the upper floor with washing machine and dryer
- Utility room with washing machine and dryer (yes, twice)
- 6 rooms
- Layout of rooms on the upper floor
What do you not like? Why?
- Location of the home office on the upper floor is not ideal in my view, but I could live with it
Price estimate from architect/planner: No new estimate so far
Personal price limit for house including features: 400,000
Preferred heating system: Heat pump
Why does the design look like it does now? For example:
Copy-paste of Gussek Haus models Lindenallee, Kiefernallee variant 1, and Buchenallee variant 2
What is the most important fundamental question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?
Is the room layout okay?
Chrisi1906 schrieb:
I find the other windows okay. Don’t turn your lintel heights into a roller coaster. Using varying heights occasionally—as an accent, for example, to follow the slope of the stairs in the stairwell windows—is a different matter. Also, don’t forget that the lintel heights of windows and interior doors need to be coordinated.
Chrisi1906 schrieb:
I also don’t like the living room in the 181W. Then why did you bring this design into the discussion?
Chrisi1906 schrieb:
We don’t want a townhouse, remember we initially wanted to build a bungalow. Not forgotten. You could definitely build the 181W as a gable roof house with a knee wall height of 180cm (6 feet).
In general, I recommend keeping in mind: the less experience you have in planning, the fewer places you should try to reinvent the wheel. Proven solutions have their genius mostly in invisible details—so there is a high risk that you unknowingly destroy this with seemingly minor changes, which can be just as significant. You should definitely avoid this risk, because your building planner definitely does not have the instinct to protect you from it.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
C
Chrisi190626 Apr 2020 20:5411ant schrieb:
Don’t turn your lintel heights into a rollercoaster. Having them vary individually as accents—like following the stair rise with the windows in the stairwell—is a different matter. Don’t forget that the lintel heights of windows and interior doors need to coordinate with each other.
So why did you bring that design into the discussion?
Also, keep in mind that you could build the 181W design as a gable roof house with a knee wall of 180cm (6 feet).
In general, I recommend considering this: the less planning experience you have, the fewer places you should try to reinvent the wheel. Proven solutions often contain their cleverness in mostly invisible details—so there is a high risk that you unintentionally destroy them with seemingly minor changes. You definitely want to avoid this risk, because your house planner clearly doesn’t have the right instinct to protect you from it.I included the 181W design just to show where I took that part from.
You are right when you say not to reinvent the wheel. That’s exactly what we are doing because we decided on option 2. Essentially, it’s a combination of the Gussek Haus floor plans Lindenallee and Kiefernallee option 1. We are using a different staircase and will always have to go through the utility area to reach the upper floor, but in return we have a larger guest bathroom and can place a small bench by the stairs.
I think the sofa is placed somewhat optimistically far away from the window - according to the plans, you have about 4.4 m (14 feet) of room width. We have a similar amount of space and have our sofa against the wall because otherwise it would be too close to the TV or the opposite wall. Therefore, using the floor-to-ceiling window behind the sofa will likely be difficult.
I just wanted to mention this – sometimes furniture is drawn into the plans, and you calculate with that, but in reality it doesn’t work out.
I just wanted to mention this – sometimes furniture is drawn into the plans, and you calculate with that, but in reality it doesn’t work out.
A
Alessandro27 Apr 2020 11:49Würfel* schrieb:
A single-family house where the living room has windows on only one (!) side, and one of them is even blocked by the sofa – to me, that feels dark and dull. In that case, a mid-terrace house would have been enough. It would be less boring with larger windows on two sides, along with attractive landscaping in front or a terrace with stylish garden furniture. That is definitely not true! We also have windows on only one side, and it is more than bright enough!
Alessandro schrieb:
That is definitely not true! We also have windows on only one side, and it is more than bright enough!Maybe it is bright enough, but above all, it is boring. Having windows on two sides feels completely different.A
Alessandro27 Apr 2020 11:57That’s a matter of personal taste, as everywhere. Depending on the window, I certainly don’t find it boring. Window area also means lost wall space, which in my opinion the original poster will need.
Besides, I wouldn’t want to sit in a glass house. Also, you often don’t need as much light in the living room as you do in the kitchen or at the dining table.
Besides, I wouldn’t want to sit in a glass house. Also, you often don’t need as much light in the living room as you do in the kitchen or at the dining table.
Similar topics