ᐅ Two preliminary designs for a single-family home, feedback

Created on: 16 May 2016 19:39
Z
zrgrvsh
Hello everyone,

I have been a silent reader for quite some time and finally have something to show 🙂

We have been working on floor plans ourselves for a while now. Recently, we received the first preliminary drafts from the architect.

We want a single-family house. Our list of requirements is quite long 😉 The most important were: 2 children's bedrooms, a separate bathroom for the children, a guest room on the ground floor (for the fiancé’s parents who occasionally visit from abroad), and a large open kitchen.

Initially, we received two versions from the architect. Version 1 is basically our design, and Version 2 is a new proposal from the architect. The plans are not perfectly but almost aligned to the north:


Floor plan of a house with garage, kitchen, dining, living room, guest room, hallway and bathroom.

V1 Ground Floor
The street is on the right. Both neighboring lots already have houses (the lot is an infill site).


Floor plan of the upper floor with bedroom, two children’s rooms, hallway and bathroom

V1 Upper Floor


Detailed floor plan of a house with garage, terrace and living areas

V2 Ground Floor
The slope is visible here, from southeast to northwest. Each line represents a 25cm (10 inches) difference in height.


Floor plan of a house with bedroom, dressing room, bathroom, hallway and children’s room

V2 Upper Floor

So far, we still prefer our version (V1). The layout seems more practical to us, although the wide glass facade and terrace in the architect’s proposal are definitely eye-catching.
The plan is to build without a basement. Generally, it is likely that we will add some space on top to create more storage and potential for expansion (not a full additional floor, as only two full floors are permitted). Either a pitched roof with a raised knee wall or a flat roof, with only part of the building being raised to full floor height, also with a flat roof.

We would appreciate any feedback 🙂 Especially criticism or suggestions for improvement on draft V1. Thank you!
B
BauRoman
19 May 2016 12:11
I believe that building on a sloped site offers great opportunities. It creates additional living space in the “basement” area, which doesn’t actually feel like a basement. To visualize this better, it would be helpful to have photos.

One question regarding the floor plan: does the house need to have such a pronounced L-shape? And is a very large terrace really desired? For example, you could modify version V1 and build over the garage, working with overlaps. This way, you wouldn’t lose as much usable space due to the L-shape and large terrace.