193 sqm urban villa with north orientation, is it sensible?

On the ground floor, a wardrobe is missing - you would miss that forever.

The bedroom on the upper floor with over 31m2 is considerably oversized. Alternatively, the upper floor could a) include one more room, b) have a larger bathroom, c) have an additional separate WC/shower, or d) have a terrace instead of living space.

Based on personal experience, you will certainly need to tweak the floor plan a bit. But it will work out.

offers us an outdoor stay area that is not exclusively dark and shady. That’s why we planned a second smaller (side) terrace in the south. I would also like to create a few raised beds for vegetables and hope that this will allow me to get the best out of the shady plot. Unfortunately, not much can be planted on the east side either.

One thing is light in the garden, the other is that enough light reaches the house. Just because a garden faces north doesn’t mean it’s in the shade. Shade is where something stands in front of the sun, blocking the light. That concerns the house, yes. The house stands itself in the sunlight, but not the garden. If the sun is in the west or east, there is also light in the north garden. Unless you put a garage in front of it. That’s why most here will advise placing the garage in the southeast corner, so that the sun can come around in the afternoon. The other thing is light in the house. Large window surfaces on the north side, but also partial windows to the west or a stairwell/door with a window front can brighten up the interior.

Is the utility room sufficient? This is where the air-to-water heat pump and technology are installed, and where washing is supposed to happen (dryer, washing machine, laundry baskets, drying rack).

No. We have 8.5 sqm utility room/freezer room for two people, we do laundry in the upstairs utility room. You have no storage space at all. I recommend this post:

Is the hallway wide enough? Especially there everything piles up when the family wants to go out and everyone is putting on jackets and shoes.

The hallway is wide enough, yes. But furnished with shoe cabinets and wardrobe cabinets… then it gets a bit like slalom around the furniture pieces. I recommend a large wardrobe for 4 people (at least 2 meters walking width).

We are totally satisfied with the upper floor, even though we know many would have divided it differently.

Honestly, I don’t find it good at all. It seems to me as if the planning was aborted after 5 minutes. No bedroom needs over 30 sqm… the entrance to child 1 adds a sqm by cheating, the entrance to child 2 is a slanted makeshift wall. It lacks storage space. You are planning just under 200 sqm and somehow there barely fits a kitchen and the dining table. And the double bed with plenty of dressing potential. I would plan a utility room of at least 8 sqm upstairs. You don’t need storage space in the sleeping area.

Or is there simply nothing more to get out of this plot? And we have to live with the north orientation.

More could be gotten out of the house itself if that were desired. You are just as little forced to the botched house positioning as you are to implement the "replacement villa" concept in King Size. What is the deeper meaning of the many reinforced concrete supports, the frosted window in the guest shower toilet despite the skylight railing height, and the, shall we say, unplanned kitchen, where the seating area relatively becomes a kitty table? – The ballroom-sized bedrooms confirm my impression of a lack of sense for dimensions. Much more is possible on all levels – but only after thorough clarification.

The architect implemented our specifications

They seem, how shall I put it, "special" and require some explanation so that we don’t misunderstand you and you don’t feel misunderstood by us. Somewhere the reason why it should become such a strange house must become understandable to us for the purpose of discussion. Or is it simply the result of the experiment "let’s arbitrarily take a secondary partial aspect (the roof should be red) and prioritize it number one"?

Site coverage ratio: 0.6 – floor area ratio: 0.5

Hardly. If the values are only swapped, that would at least be a strong indication against "II" full floors.

Hardly. If the values are only swapped, that would at least be a strong indication against "II" full metal jacket bullets.

Typo...

Is this already an execution plan??? o_O

Thanks already for your opinions. We are interested in how you perceive our planning. I will try to address all points to explain our perspective a little.
A 2-3 m long wardrobe cupboard is planned along the long hallway wall.
The dining table is supposed to be square, 1.60m (with extension possibility). I don’t actually consider that a small table. We want a large dining table with lots of space in the middle. Personally, I don’t like these narrow 90cm tables.

Regarding the garage, we had also thought about the east. But from our point of view, two reasons speak against it: 1. On the east side, right in our driveway on the street side, there is a lamppost (expensive to remove). 2. We want as wide a driveway as possible and accordingly only the given 3m on the other side of the house. If the garage were on the east side now, the house would have to be pushed further west. At least we have the possibility in the west driveway to put a table with a bench to enjoy the last evening hours. There will be a fence in front. Also, the neighbor’s house and hedge in the west are so high (higher than our garage) that we would get even less western sun ☹

It is clear to us that the upper floor is not majority-compatible, but that is also exactly what we want. You always have display space on the long walls with large built-in wardrobes. We find it much easier to separate or structure large rooms with the help of furniture than to have several smaller rooms from the start, which is irrevocably fixed by a wall. The “dance floor” is a multifunctional area, actually because a) my wife has a lot of clothes and wants a runway, b) there will still be a desk there, and c) the master bedroom should also be a private retreat for us sometimes without children. Each family member should also be allowed to have their privacy. By the way, points a) to c) are not listed in order of priority. But as said, we know that many recommend smaller bedrooms. We simply do not see this room only as a bedroom.

Then the suggestion came up to swap the staircase with the house entrance. We had also considered that variant, but then a side entrance was more important to us, so we are not directly on the street when the children run out the door. We have planned a gate in front of the driveway.

: I think you mixed up the cardinal directions.
: Guest bathroom without natural light…?

I gather from some feedback that they don’t necessarily share my concerns about the terrace being only shady. The other story is whether the open-plan living area will become too dark. That’s why we decided on 4 very large floor-to-ceiling windows on the north side (that’s also the reason for the concrete supports from static reasons; the masonry somehow has to be supported). I just hope that enough light comes in this way. But is that really so, what do you think?

@ant11: I don’t quite understand, what do you mean by “instead villa”? How exactly would you get more out of the house? What do you see as the disadvantage of a long kitchen run (we need a lot of storage there because the utility room is small and there is no basement) with a large cooking island?

Now it has become quite long, sorry. But I wanted to pick up all your suggestions and explain how we came to this.

Did I overlook it or is there a reason why the house has to be oriented exactly that way? Why does the terrace have to be on the north side? Why does the garage have to be pushed back so far and cannot be closer to the street? Our neighbor opposite has a beautiful terrace and a large garden in the south, even though the driveway to the property is on the side. There would be many other possibilities if it is not explicitly desired that way.