Final polishing / optimization for floor plan desired

We want to build a single-family house with approximately 170 sqm. We want to build without a basement. The plot has a southwest orientation. We are quite satisfied with the current orientation of the rooms.
An important room in the house would be a study.

One point we are not sure about is the layout of the living/dining room and the kitchen. Does anyone see a possibility to make the kitchen larger? It seems somewhat small to us in its current form. We have already tried swapping the living room and the kitchen, but then we had the same problem with the living room.

Upstairs, we find that the two children's rooms turned out quite large. Would there be a possibility here to better divide and utilize the space?


Development plan/restrictions
Size of the plot: 598 sqm
Slope: the plot slopes down about 1.8 m towards the south
Floor area ratio:
Floor space index:
Building window, building line and boundary: 3m
Edge development:
Number of parking spaces
Number of floors: 2 full floors
Roof shape: -
Style direction: -
Orientation: -
Maximum heights/limits: -
Other requirements: -

Requirements of the builders
Style, roof shape, building type: hipped roof, gable roof
Basement, floors: no basement, 2 full floors
Number of persons, age: 2 persons, (2 children)
Room requirements on ground floor and upper floor
Office: family use or home office? Office
Number of overnight guests per year
Open or closed architecture: open
Conservative or modern construction method: modern
Open kitchen, cooking island: open with island

House design
From whom is the planning:
- planner from a construction company
What do you particularly like? Why?: storage room by the kitchen
What do you not like? Why?: kitchen
Price estimate according to architect/planner:
Personal price limit for the house, including equipment:
Preferred heating technology: heat pump

If you have to dispense with, which details/extensions
- can you dispense with:
- can you not dispense with: office

Why is the design the way it is now? e.g.
Standard design from the planner? Standard design + additions from our side


What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?
Can the living/dining room and kitchen area be better arranged? Is the location of the utility room there sensible?

Hmm .. 2 offices? How is the house supposed to be built on the sloping plot? Fill up on the south side? How does the plot fit into the surroundings? Corner plot? A site plan would be useful. The nice west/southwest side for summer use is poorly usable here. Especially Child 1 could become a rather dark room due to the depth of almost 6m. In general, I would arrange the children's rooms more on the south side.

You will surely get more "well-founded" answers.... but at first glance, a few questions/remarks:

Is there a reason the technical room is there? I would tend to swap the technical room and the office.

I also wouldn't like the position of the sofa. Can the fireplace also be on the exterior wall between the living room and dining room? Then just rotate the living room?

What do you mean by better utilizing the space on the upper floor? If you think the children's rooms are too big... where would you like more space?

The house has a small window on the north side? Am I seeing that correctly? It must look funny from the outside ;-)

Is there an attic? If the garage is for the car, that seems like very little storage space etc.

I would have placed the children's rooms largely square-shaped at the top, dividing the office between the two rooms. The bedroom with dressing room then at the bottom left and the office between one of the children's rooms and the bathroom. 14 sqm I consider nice for a children's room, less is possible but then requires creative furnishing.

The kitchen can work like this, but I would then forgo a cooking island. Preferably a U-shaped kitchen and later, when you notice there is enough space, add a small counter.

I would also have swapped the office and utility room on the ground floor. Do there really need to be 2 offices or should the lower one rather become a guest room?

The living room is 3.68 meters wide... most sofas (think of a new purchase) are over 3 meters wide. The kitchen may just barely work in terms of width, but the overall open space has two narrow wings, with the main area for eating in the middle. I do not find the wings successful, and thus not the entire open space either. All paths lead past the sofa, even the evening parcel delivery person gets to catch a glimpse of it. On the other hand, the path to the pantry with the groceries is very long... front door - hallway - sofa - dining table - kitchen - finally pantry!

For improvements, the floor plan is definitely important. Why is the house designed the way it is?

No basement or lower ground floor despite a 1.80 meter slope?????

Das Grundstück hat Süd-West-Ausrichtung.

I see a southeast orientation... and a flooded garage in the future

I can only agree with all of this.. overall it all looks unthought-out. In addition to the points mentioned:

- Children's room too big? I don't think so. But poorly shaped and definitely swap the north-facing one to the southwest, nobody wants such a dark corridor like it is now

- Storage room next to the kitchen is impractical and takes away the possibility of a really nicely customized kitchen. Also, it is impractical, better to have more storage space within easy reach

- Toilet in the upstairs bathroom.. controversially discussed, I don't find it nice

- Bedroom too big in relation to the children's rooms

- Bathroom upstairs very impractical to reach... around the stairs once, maximum distance from the bedroom, I also see this as impractical

- Such a small cooking island is good for TV chefs, but as planned for you totally impractical. Who wants to sit there while something is being fried in parallel? Read here in the forum about cooking island vs. work or sink island