Dissatisfied with the architect's plan

Do you mean now that one would step onto the terrace from the upper floor?

No, with split level (and garage / basement at street level) the garden side of the ground floor would be about as high as the current stair landing and correspond to a terrace whose rear end fits the terrain without stairs.

Yes, then I am even more disappointed with the architect and would actually look for another one.

I would also be disappointed in the architect... I just looked at his homepage, but apart from the announcement of the relaunch in 2014 (!!!) there is absolutely nothing of his work to be seen. No reference projects. How on earth did you come across him?

For example, the step down from the hallway to the kitchen on the ground floor would bother me. Why? To make the hallway bigger? Nobody stays there. It would be nicer if the kitchen and dining area appeared more spacious without the step. I am puzzled by this design....

I am currently stumbling over the question of whether you need an architect for this. What would be the alternative if you don't want a prefabricated house?

This has absolutely nothing to do with a prefabricated house.

But you don't need an architect. You can simply go to a construction company and plan with them. At least in our case, they also had great ideas.

Splitlevel is something you have to want and like. You run up a staircase for every little thing and children are under high "evolutionary pressure" to quickly learn how to climb stairs, because nobody installs half a dozen gates, that would drive you crazy. We currently live in a Splitlevel, our children are still living here (not a single gate installed), and we would never want to build it that way ourselves. Even to go to the bathroom I have to climb five steps. Never again.

Also von dem Architekten wäre ich auch enttäuscht... hatte gerade mal auf seiner Homepage geschaut, aber da ist außer der Ankündigung des Relaunch in 2014 (!!!) überhaupt nichts von seiner Arbeit zu sehen. Keine Referenzobjekte. Wie seid Ihr auf den bloß gekommen?.

I personally consider it fundamentally wrong even today to infer people’s competence from their online presence. Our architects also have a rudimentary website, but they rely on their work (as far as I can tell, of course). Conversely, many plumbers here have very extensive, good-looking websites, but upon closer inspection, you notice that the texts are the same ... they all bought a website from the same service provider and branded it with their own logo.

No, with a split level (and garage / basement at street level), the garden side of the ground floor would be about as high as the current stair landing and suitable for a terrace, the rear end of which fits the terrain without stairs.

At what height would the entrance be then? I have to defend the architect a little here; I have often been opposed to solutions for the hillside location. But maybe also because I really can't imagine it... for example, I want to avoid a long staircase to the front door. The current solution with the half staircase inside was then the emergency solution.

How did you even come up with that

It was a recommendation from a friend. However, I have now heard that he also went to him with a quasi-finished plan...