A above-ground living basement?

Hello everyone,

so far I have only been reading along in the forum and have found a lot of interesting things.

Now I am planning the construction of a single-family house.

I am surprised that there is so little information about concrete in the private sector, although I have already seen several architect-designed houses made of exposed concrete in "real life." I do not want and am not allowed to build quite that extreme, but I am interested in whether the cost-effective construction method of a basement can also be used above ground for living. The prefabricated basement manufacturers advertise how versatile their products are. But can you really build something other than a basement with it?

Does anyone have experience with KFW-55 suitable concrete walls for the ground floor of a single-family house (so to speak, an above-ground living basement)? Does something like that work in practice?

Thanks in advance for all the answers!

p.s.

Please do not discuss the question of breathable or non-breathable walls in this question. Thank you.

And I am aware that it is very difficult to install under-plaster wiring in concrete walls. However, this can largely be avoided by planning to accommodate installations, light switches etc. in drywall interior walls. Theoretically.

Of course, you can build entire buildings like that. If you want exposed concrete, the question is how you want to manage the insulation. Your basement builders also offer insulation in the shell, which would probably be sufficient at least in the earth-contact area. KFW 55 as an exterior wall against air would probably be more difficult.

Thank you for the answer. No, I don’t want exposed concrete and I probably wouldn’t be allowed to build it anyway. I am indifferent about the type of insulation – inside or outside doesn’t matter to me; the real question is whether the insulation against air is sufficient for KfW-55. If you use a [WDVS], then it is probably feasible with enough thickness. theoretically.

The question is probably rather whether you also want to pay for it. Whether you build your [EG] now from concrete and [WDVS] or from [KS] and [WDVS] is technically almost the same. But in the end, nobody wants to pay for it.

I am surprised that there is so little information about concrete in the private sector, even though in "real life" I have already seen several architects' houses made of exposed concrete.

My reading recommendations here would be and

Basement construction specialists are familiar with earth pressure and groundwater, but rather not with architecture, and above ground it should probably look a bit nice as well (?)

: thanks for the hints. Looking nice is not that important to me. I’m not allowed to do a concrete look anyway: I pretty much have to build one and a half stories plastered white with a red or black gable roof.

My original thought was similar to this:

Thousands of builders construct basements from concrete using sandwich technology (just take a look at the manufacturers of prefabricated basements). In principle, that can also be done above ground.

But the linked argument

Sandwich is more suitable for multi-family house construction; in batch size “1” the costs for planning each individual panel with its fixtures and openings and the setup costs for the formwork construction are disproportionately high (absolutely and compared to the material production costs).

makes sense to me.

And also

You can also do it so that an insulating layer is introduced instead of the cast-in-place concrete layer, then you have concrete on both outer surfaces. However, the inner shell then cannot be formed as a thin “lost formwork,” but must structurally replace the cast-in-place concrete layer of the previously explained variant. Therefore, it weighs significantly more, which affects transport logistics and the possible panel dimensions.

In the linked threads, there is also talk of 60 cm insulating concrete. Maybe I am indeed a bit irrational about that. I have already provided for 50 cm wall thickness in my current floor plan draft for solid masonry. But for more than 50 cm, my acceptance threshold is exceeded.