ᐅ Why are most urban villas built with a square floor plan?

Bieber0815 schrieb:
At most, some people once called it a "coffee grinder." Back then, flat hip roofs didn’t exist yet; hipped roofs and mansard roofs were common.

I still remember "coffee grinder" too.

Mansard roofs were more often used for single-family homes, especially the narrower ones, to create living space within the roof.

The flat hip roofs were later added on some "coffee grinders" when their roof frames were heavily damaged during the war. Then the houses were rebuilt as rainproof as possible using minimal materials.

Knallkörper schrieb:
Can you explain what you mean? I’m a bit lost here.

I was talking about window proportions (in elevation). You can roughly categorize them into three types: portrait format (taller than wide or narrower than high), landscape format (wider than high and/or shallower than wide), and square (equal height and width). By "portrait format," I mean those that are, for example, floor-to-ceiling but only about half a meter (20 inches) wide; and by "landscape format," I mean widths that span the room with the sill around chin height. By "near square," I mean formats where you need reading glasses and a tape measure to distinguish them from perfect squares—like 126cm/120cm (50 inches/47 inches) or 201cm/213cm (79 inches/84 inches). In my opinion, it looks worst when portrait (or landscape) and near-square formats are placed directly side by side as decoration.

This is specifically about windows. If there is a near-square garage adjacent to a long-format house with a floor plan of, say, 9 by 13 meters (30 by 43 feet), it’s not disturbing.

MIA_SAN_MIA__ schrieb:
I’m also a bit worried about the available space...

Which space are you referring to?

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https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/

On our property. I am concerned that it might end up closer to the street than I would prefer. But we will only know for sure once we have surveyed the land and visited the local authorities...

Interesting thread!
We are also building a rather elongated house, almost like the firecracker design but a bit more compact.

11ant schrieb:
In my opinion, the worst-looking option is when you place maximum (or transverse) and nearly square formats right next to each other as decoration.

I can’t agree with that.
In our case, only one side of the house is truly 100% symmetrical with the windows, and I like it.

RobsonMKK schrieb:
I can’t agree with that.
In our case, only one side of the house is truly 100% symmetrical with the windows, and I like it.

I don’t see any contradiction here, as I didn’t talk about symmetry either. Let’s take the front entrance from your avatar as an example: the front door is almost square, with a horizontal window above it (though not perfectly horizontal, more like a 2:1 ratio). Next to the door (slightly apart) is a moderately tall window (which fits well, since the door element consists of two vertically oriented parts). The chimney, upper window, and front door align closely along the centerline. Everything is fine. Symmetry is not required here at all.

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https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/

Thank you for the praise [emoji6]

Interesting to see how many different opinions come up here.