10x10m city villa (approx. 155m², 6 rooms), fine-tuning desired

A car used once a week

I use the car daily. Due to our working hours, however, we only have to repark once a week (if at all) to make it fit. Therefore, I don't see it as that critical, and we also save the second gate. Furthermore: Of course, we would have preferred to park side by side! But that simply cannot be realized. Ideas or alternative compromises are very welcome to me.

Therefore, the house could still be shifted further to the left within the building plot, and the carport right next to it should be possible. Where is my mistake in thinking?

That really looks possible on the plan. In fact, we were on the plot, measured, and then we would be sitting with the terrace directly in front of the embankment, have a direct view of the street, and would also be directly exposed to noise from there. And then you wouldn’t have any sun through the trees anymore. We definitely do not want that. So on the right, there can only be a simple wider carport (in our case, even quite generous with about 4.5-5m width).

It’s not mature yet, but okay, you are still in planning. The walking routes and terrace doors should perhaps be reconsidered now. Otherwise, it will be botched. With this floor plan, I could imagine a nice sideboard as a room divider with a TV on one side and the dining table on the other, to save space. The door to the pantry should be a proper door.

Apart from minor details, the floor plan should be finalized soon.

[*]The TV is more or less in the corner and does not disturb, but a sideboard as a divider would be conceivable. [*]The terrace door is of course on the left (everything else is windows). [*]The fireplace could go in that corner, that’s true – we only placed it there at the front so that the heat can quickly spread through the whole house if needed and not just stay in the living room (the wood stove is freestanding). [*]Why is the front door reversed? We actually designed it that way so that the bathroom door stays more free and you can pass straight by the closet or wardrobe.

A private road, if any, is only the southern newly to be constructed road. We currently need 4.5m to turn in front of our carport at 90°, which is why I placed it only 1.5m in front of the 3.5m wide road.

We have two parking spaces, both individually accessible, mandatory for a single-family house; so parking one behind the other would not be allowed in new planning. It’s different for existing buildings, but when newly built, both parking spaces must be directly accessible. Check if you have a similar regulation there. That would make the "tandem double carport" obsolete (and I also find that solution worse than suboptimal).

I think you have to let go of fixed ideas. Even if you really like the carport at the house, I think a different solution would be more reasonable here due to the property’s requirements.

My suggestion: a combination of carport and garage on the west side at street level. It can also be a semi-open double carport; on the east side in any case a wall that also functions as a retaining wall, with the rest, i.e. terrace and house, at the current level. That means: the carport is lower, has a wall on the right that allows a step up to the level where the house/terrace is.

This gives you a privacy wall for the terrace on the west side (namely the upper part of the carport/garage wall); I would give the carport/garage a green flat roof. Then the west terrace is also protected from the street, but still you get sunlight.

If you are so interested in protecting yourselves from views of neighbors/street, maybe take a look at the episode of Traumhäuser (Bavarian Television, Mediathek) titled "Ein Hofhaus am Nordhang". There they have a courtyard solution that might also work for you. Or an idea for a terrace, it doesn’t have to be completely closed on all sides. But just as inspiration.

Given the circumstances, I would separate carport/garage from the house, place them towards the street, and swallow the longer walk to the house (you say yourselves: the plot is more or less a compromise because you can’t get another; then you have to make compromises too). You could create a party room with a pergola running from garage/carport to the house (so you can get dry from the car to the house). Or/and simply plan a sturdy awning over the terrace (preferably with side supports, then it is also stable in windier weather), then you have enough space for a party.

Here a very rough, quickly sketched outline:



Proportions are free, I did not pay attention to scale here. This is just meant as an idea.

As I said, the kitchen and bathroom are not yet finally furnished, it’s only about the floor plan. Or did you mean bathroom above kitchen in general? If yes, why?

Laundry in the south/west – do you mean the storage room upstairs? We don’t do laundry there. A more accurate term for this forum might be hobby room?

I actually drew the stairs according to the measurements given here, that should fit.

But I did explain the thought process: parking side by side is not compatible with this building envelope / property / wishes. The possibilities are:

[*]Carport on the right: Then the house and the terrace are too far to the left.
[*]Carport on the left: House too dark, this was talked us out of here. Also, the floor plan becomes rubbish if we want the entrance from the carport.

An entrance from the carport is more important to us than parking side by side. We’re used to that for now and then I just have to rearrange the cars once a week.
And the space remains the same!? About 50 m2 are also built into the carport here.

The only maybe possible alternative is a carport on the left moved forward (assuming we can do a boundary build) and the entrance in the south – but then we lack a sheltered entrance, and a 5 m long roof looks pretty ridiculous. And then no shoe shelf in the carport, meaning the hallway has to be larger, other rooms shrink, … I’m still missing the inspiring idea.

How are inspiring ideas supposed to arise if one has relatively little knowledge of the subject of house design, architecture, and construction?

The design is absolutely not mature or final.
If I look at the upper floor without dimensions, for example take the entrance area of the bathroom, I doubt there is enough space to get past the shower. And even if you imagine this entrance area in 3D, I ask myself why there is a door in the bathroom if you then run into a wall in terms of planning.
In the ground floor, you probably first have to create the couch that’s squeezed in there: take a normal couch, and the dining table stands immediately in the sofa area.
But that is just an estimate – since there are no dimensions. But it seems that the open space is rather too deep and about 10 meters of exterior wall is too short for the intended use.
Guest list too small, you probably won’t get to the toilet upstairs if you include the partition walls. Doors don’t leave any space for placing cabinets, and the bedroom also looks bigger than it actually is.

If you focus on 10 x 10, you have to follow the rules and not behave inside as if it were 12 x 8.

I have now read everything in this thread, and my advice with the planner was a hint!
It really is time to consult a professional and realize that you can’t proceed further without expert help. There are also way too many open questions that you’re now tiptoeing around to avoid going to a professional.

You have received a lot of input.
I’m out now, but happy to discuss again when a well-thought-out plan from your planner is available: unfortunately, you have one who is not much of a thinker, but he should at least be able to implement the written conditions. Plus common rules like utility rooms facing northeast, living rooms southwest.
And with your budget, great technical extravagances are not possible either. The carport also has to be paid for – in your place, I would plan that it won’t be built for the first few years.

It will work out

The draft is absolutely neither mature nor final.

Which one do you mean (the one from #100 would be, if I’m not mistaken, the youngest from the OP, although calling it "not mature" would be a very polite way to put it)?

If you get into 10 x 10, then you also have to follow the rules and not pretend inside that it’s a 12 x 8.

I want to go further: if you want to have a square in terms of the outlines, you must also put in something in the content that in sum results in a square. Here, for example, the bathroom looks as if sanitary fixtures were just drawn into a "leftover area." On a day that starts in such a bathroom, even in perfect weather, you won’t create heroes – it has already gone reasonably well considering the circumstances if you haven’t hanged yourself by noon.

The square is a highly simple basic shape that demands discipline when subdividing. The rectangle is actually closely related to it but forgives playing Tetris with boxes a bit more easily due to the unequal second dimension.

With the square, it’s basically always the same game, reinforced here by the additional fixation on certain outer dimensions: if you start by partitioning successfully dimensioned rooms, you will end up with leftover rooms that are dimensioned all wrong.

Unfortunately, nowadays many authorized plan submitters are only civil engineers by talent but architecture dyslexics.

By the way, a square house needs not only a square plot but also a square building field.

By the way, a city villa and a townhouse staircase go together like sneakers and a tuxedo.

#114, a spin-off of #100 Although somewhat straightened, the lack of planning remains

I am aware that the forum here cannot replace a planner. Nevertheless, I hoped for constructive criticism, like from , for example.

I do not find statements like this helpful:

Here, for instance, the bathroom looks as if the sanitary fixtures were drawn into a "leftover area". Starting a day in such a bathroom, even in perfect weather, you won’t be making heroes – it’s already running well enough under the circumstances if you haven’t hanged yourself by midday.

It is completely fine to criticize the bathroom. But please also provide a constructive alternative proposal or concrete ideas, instead of just saying "I would hang myself in this bathroom". Especially since I have already mentioned several times that the distribution of the sanitary fixtures in the bathroom is not yet final.

Also, remarks like ...

If you focus on 10 x 10, then you have to follow the rules and not pretend inside that it is a 12 x 8.

... or ...

By the way, a square house needs not only a square plot but also a square building field.

By the way, a city villa and a townhouse staircase go together like sneakers with a tuxedo.

... just hang in the air without explanation. I can’t make anything out of that, and at best it comes across as know-it-all (especially since it usually escalates and in the end fits neither our wishes nor our budget). I would like to stick to concrete improvement suggestions. Thank you.

PS: 10x10 (and also the shape of the stairs) is not necessarily mandatory, we would have no problem with 12x8 or anything else. With 10x10, you just block the least space to the west and at the same time have the longest possible west front, which suits our wishes.

Back to the subject:
– thank you very much for the idea. Unfortunately, it’s not feasible because: That would mean excavating an estimated 100 cubic meters of earth including trees (due to the distance to the public street on the west, the carport is somewhat further inside the property than drawn), building a high retaining wall, and also constructing the stairs with a wall. That is simply not financially possible.

For us, two parking spaces, each individually accessible, are mandatory for a single-family house; so parking one behind the other would not be allowed in a new plan. It’s different in existing buildings, but for new constructions, both parking spaces must be directly accessible. Check whether there is such a regulation for you as well.

That’s harsh, I wouldn’t have thought that something like that is prescribed. In case of doubt, you would simply have to specify it as a large single carport.
But for us, up to 50m2 are not subject to approval, so it probably applies more: no plaintiff, no judge. It’s also not a massive garage connected to the house; I can imagine such a thing more easily in that case.

We will take the collected ideas to our planner as soon as it’s clear whether this is a private road or not, as this substantially determines the position of the carport.