First floor plan draft from our architect - opinions?

Very nice that you have included all the essential views etc. A bit of background is still missing. Yvonne has pinned such a nice post at the top of this forum section.

It would also always be good to know what you were thinking with some of the rooms. You write that the furnishing is not necessarily intended that way, but for now we have to assume that here. Of course, something like that flows into the overall impression.

Regarding the floor plan... unfortunately, there are quite a few things I don’t like :oops::confused: I will just list them:

[*]Huge house, but you come in and almost fall down the basement stairs
[*]Entrance area, as soon as more than one person comes in, it becomes tight and you have to squeeze around the door.. positive here is the cloakroom space (although with 176 cm that’s tight if you calculate 60 cm closet and e.g. 40 cm shoe cabinet depth. Negative is the delineation of the too small windbreak
[*]Kitchen.. that wouldn’t be my preferred layout. Work surface.. ok, but tall cabinets and the large relatively useless traffic area in the middle.. why does there still need to be a storage room there?
[*]Kitchen has quite a long way to the terrace

[*]Dining area.. could be spacious but is limited again by the narrow middle section, as in depth actually only about 300 cm is available. A table longer than 200 cm will be tight in the corner there.
[*]Narrow middle section.. a lot of space ;) .. certainly good to have the fireplace a bit away from seating places. I can basically understand the niche for the terrace, but I also somewhat doubt the construction cost.
[*]Living room.. hopefully it won’t be furnished as drawn, because then there would be no generosity left. For me, that would be a case for 2 spacious two-seat sofas and a flexible armchair or something, so that you still have a view towards the window.
[*]Guest bathroom and office (really an office.. or also guest room) seem somehow too convoluted to me. 180 cm width is not really nice for a bathroom but would be doable.

Now to the upper floor

[*]An essential point has already been mentioned... I would urgently orient both children’s rooms to the south (especially child 1 really got the short end of the stick, if you look at the exact orientation on the site plan) and actually reconsider the roof orientation. I also think the children will rather use the balconies than you as parents.. or?

[*]With a bit of imagination, you can divide the upper floor so that there is still a small room upstairs for, e.g., washing machine/dryer and vacuum cleaner/mop. Then you can do the laundry where it occurs, and the balconies would at least be used for the drying rack.

My wife and my daughter absolutely want the balcony, whether we will use it.... I hope so.

And the little one is getting an iPhone... unfortunately, your daughter has no access to the desired balcony, so now what?

Seriously: if the money is available to build something more open, even with two balconies, then do it. For drying laundry, a closed balcony is suitable; an open one will hardly be used, except for airing out the beds (or yourself ;))
But then I would plan a utility room on the upper floor where the laundry that arises can be done consistently. A balcony, as you plan it, is only good for a glossy advertisement photo where the lady of the house leans relaxed on the railing and looks into the distance ;)
Why aren’t the children’s rooms facing south and assigned the balconies?
Laundry: You are probably carrying it over two floors at the moment, including an intermediate door to the cellar stairs. Practicality is different.

I find the U-shape great; I initially planned it myself. But I would have made the east wing longer than the west one to catch the west sun there.

I find the office and guest WC somewhat small in proportion to the other rooms... what else should the cellar be used for besides laundry and technology?

Edit: wrote something similar :)

... sounds like the word generating machine ;) ;) ;)