ᐅ Your Favorite Floor Plans for Single-Family Homes

guckuck2 schrieb:

just post floor plans that you consider successful (in relation to the plot). Maybe a couple of words explaining why, and that’s it.

Of course, I find our floor plan successful. It is very clearly structured, not ornate. At the time of planning, we anticipated the neighboring buildings, which did not yet exist or were unknown, and oriented our building accordingly. That worked out well.

That is more than a couple of words, but the image is missing.

guckuck2 schrieb:

But unfortunately private

conflicts with the statement

guckuck2 schrieb:

You could also skip the philosophical fundamental discussions and just post floor plans,

That is preaching water and drinking wine – hic Rhodos, hic salta!

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guckuck2 schrieb:

At least I am willing to contribute something to the topic, kaho674.

Do you want a gold star for the good intentions now?
Never mind.

kaho674 schrieb:

I have already mentioned a few nice designs here:

Yes, several – and for the "Bienchen," there is even a holy picture included.

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

guckuck2 schrieb:

Just post floor plans that you find successful (in relation to the plot size). Maybe add a couple of words about why, and that’s it.

Then someone else comes along and says the entrance would be much bigger if you rotate this or that... or the kitchen would be better there because of drainage/workflow (without knowing there was a specific reason it was designed that way, like external factors), and suddenly the “perfect floor plan” is criticized and an unnecessary discussion arises.

A house is planned according to the plot requirements (building permit / planning permission), the existing conditions (orientation, neighboring buildings, vegetation, and soil), and the needs of the owners, such as size and budget. Once you understand this, there is no perfect floor plan.
The best-selling house is the Flair 131—let’s take this floor plan as an example... it also works for Heinz von Heiden and Team Massiv. Almost every homeowner probably has this floor plan in their portfolio because it is efficient, cost-effective structurally, logically zoned, meets the average needs of a family of four, makes good use of every square meter, and the room proportions are balanced.
That said, I wouldn’t claim it as my personal “favorite floor plan.”
Take the example of the standard Maxime by Viebrockhaus—there are four or five of these in our neighborhood. They are somewhat similar to the Flair, but only somewhat.
I know two of them from the inside: both are the same except that one has a closed kitchen on the ground floor. The version with the closed kitchen lacks an entrance bay in the hallway, making the hallway roughly half a meter (1.6 feet) smaller. It doesn’t really matter. This house is occupied by a couple in their mid-50s. Now it turns out: hip problems, stairs are difficult, there is no room downstairs, but two extra rooms upstairs.
For a family of four, this house is fine. However, now an office for home working is missing. The baby was born three months ago—before that, there was an office room. For both of them, this was the floor plan they chose. Is it still their favorite floor plan?
I’ve also seen two other Maximes. Both have the extra room variant on the ground floor. One house, also lived in by a couple around 50, seems to have a living room that is too small. I don’t know if they have separate bedrooms upstairs or if one of these rooms serves as a spare living room. So, for two people, it’s a four-bedroom house with a living room that’s too small.
The other family uses the ground-floor room for their young adult child. For them, it seems perfect. But probably only because they extended the small living room with a conservatory.
Favorite floor plan?
And what if you have the plot currently discussed in the neighboring thread? 17 meters (56 feet) wide, north-facing… should you or can you just install your favorite floor plan there? Would you be compromising your own preferences by considering a different layout? What about the architect’s professional role, whose job is explicitly to tailor a floor plan/design to a specific plot, based on the requirements mentioned above… is that then their favorite floor plan that they design?

The floor plan follows the given requirements. Some factors come from external sources (building envelope / building boundary, plot of land…), while others come from the homeowner (budget, lifestyle habits, preferences…). A good architect listens carefully and implements the design in close communication. A prefab home supplier makes proposals from which you can choose what best suits your own needs.

Of course, we especially like our floor plan – we designed it with the architect specifically for our own site on the hillside. This floor plan is not suitable for reproduction, as the conditions of the land are rarely the same. Many people like our house, but few want to live in a house like this.

So, if you want to find the optimal floor plan, engage with your lifestyle preferences. How do you want to live, rather than what you want to live in. Don’t think in terms of rooms and walls, but in terms of preferences and functions.

Especially the comparison between @hampshire and me shows how difficult it is
- steep slope
- custom design
- roughly the same living area
- family with 2 children

You would expect the floor plans to be almost the same.
Not at all.

They couldn’t be more different.

And Hampshire is right. The house was designed around personal lifestyle.