First floor plan draft: Your opinion is requested.

Development Plan/Restrictions
Size of the plot: 780 sqm
Slope: 4.5m over 30 meters (i.e. approx. 6% incline), descending from east to west
Site occupancy index: 0.25
Floor space index: 0.35
Edge development: in the middle of an existing neighborhood
Number of parking spaces: Large double garage including 2-3 spaces in front
Number of floors: 2 full stories
Roof type: Hipped roof
Style: "City villa" (However, the house is located very rurally, at approx. 930m above sea level :)
Orientation: Southwest
Maximum heights/limits: Maximum building height: 8.5m
Client Requirements
Style, roof form, building type: City villa, hipped roof, single-family house
Basement, floors: Fully basement with semi-integrated double garage, 2 full stories
Number of persons, age: We (27 + 27 years) + 2 planned children
Space requirements on ground floor, upper floor: See plan
Office: Family use or home office? Mainly family use. (But you never know? (Home office))
Guests per year: Rarely or never, maybe 2-3 times per year (max)
Open or closed architecture: Open
Conservative or modern construction: modern?
Open kitchen, cooking island
Number of dining seats: 6-8
Fireplace: We are not sure yet (There should be a geothermal heat pump, possibly an additional Swedish stove)
Music/stereo wall: No
Balcony, roof terrace: Covered terrace southwest, open terrace on garage roof facing northwest for flowers, herbs, etc.
Garage, carport: Very large garage for 2 cars including workshop
Utility garden, greenhouse: no, not planned at the moment
Further wishes/special features/daily routine

House Design
Who designed it: First draft by us, no contact with an architect yet.

What do you like especially?
Large open living and dining area with kitchen with large window fronts. (Direct access to terrace/garden)

What do you dislike? So far nothing :)

Cost estimate according to architect/planner: n/a
Personal price limit for the house, including equipment: n/a
Preferred heating technology: Geothermal probe

If you must give up something, what details/extensions
-can you give up: Covered seating area, can be subsequently covered later.
-can’t you give up: Integrated double garage

Notes:
Due to the slight slope towards the neighborhood street, a (semi) integrated garage is predestined for this project from my point of view. The garage should also be used as a workshop and storage room (lawn mower, winter tires, bicycles).

The outdoor and storage room in the basement is to be understood like this: We are enthusiastic fans of all kinds of mountain sports (biking, climbing, skiing, ski touring, hiking, snowshoeing) which requires a lot of material, equipment, and clothing. Therefore, we want a room (as close to the garage as possible) where all the gear can be stored. We also want a small sink there for cleaning shoes or filling drink bottles, etc. :)

Further, I am not sure whether separating the laundry room and heating room makes sense or not? (At my parents’ house it is one big room, which works very well...)

On the ground floor, we want a large window front with sliding windows. The covered terrace should also, if possible, have a glass roof (with variable shading) so that the living and dining area does not become too dark.

Any criticism is welcome, and I thank you in advance for the initial assessment of our floor plan. (I/we are not architects: Please forgive me the relatively poor dimensioning :)

Greetings from Switzerland

Seisler

Do I understand correctly that you want to build against the natural terrain slope? I cannot imagine that drainage on the property will be favorable. On the one hand, it would be interesting to know whether this embankment of 4.5? meters in the southwest is allowed, regardless of the sense of it, on the other hand, I would like to know where your cost limit for the house construction is set.

Am I right in understanding that you want to build against the natural terrain slope? I can hardly imagine that the drainage on the property will be favorable. On the one hand, it would be interesting to know whether this embankment of 4.5? meters in the southwest is permitted, leaving aside the sense of it; on the other hand, I would like to know where your cost limit for the house construction is located.

No, you don’t see it correctly :) The terrain slopes down towards the neighborhood street. (So, roughly as the ramp to the front door is drawn.) That means, in the northeast we have a lot of material (4.5m) and in the southwest "nothing" (0m).

To better illustrate this, I have added a photo showing the "original terrain."

This means that in the northeast we have to remove some earth and in the southwest add some material. (So that everything is level.) By the way, the neighbors on the left and right did the same.

Regarding the costs: I don’t know if it makes sense to publish the numbers here since the house is being built in Switzerland. The prices DE-CH are, as is well known, not exactly on the same level. :) But we estimate about 700,000 euros for the entire project without land, which, by the way, corresponds to a "completely normal" house in Switzerland :) (So for this price, you won’t get a giant or luxury house, just for your information alongside.)

I don't find the slanted wall (play corner) on the ground floor very nice. I would straighten it and also create a storage room in the hallway.

Since there is a separate children's bathroom, I wouldn't make the master bathroom accessible from the hallway. In general, I find having 2 doors / ways in and out of the bathroom always unfortunate. But that's a matter of taste.

I think these are quite substantial dimensions. If this is an ordinary house, then you Swiss are to be envied. ;)

We also have a plot with such a slope, but for us it slopes from west to east, so basically the other way around. ;)
With a height difference of 4.5m over 30m length, that’s actually a slope of 15% and not 6% (but just as a side note).

I don’t want to persuade you of anything, but [Vorlauf] would be interesting for you as the split-level building method. For us it’s pretty much heading in that direction.

Attached is a section showing roughly how it could look for us:


On the right side of the plan is east for us, so it’s basically a section with a view from the south.

On level 0 we have the carport + entrance + basement. From there you go up a half-level to level 1 with the dining/kitchen area, from which you also go “left” to the parent area.
From the kitchen area you go up to level 2 into the living room, which is then connected to the kitchen/dining area by a kind of gallery.
On level 3 are our children’s rooms, children’s bathroom and office/guest room.
Level 4 will be a roof terrace for us.

The huge advantage is simply that you adapt the building to the natural terrain. That can save a lot of money.
We find this building method extremely exciting and after some visits we have now also decided that we want to build like this.

If you can get excited about it, [Vorlauf] would be an alternative. The plot would allow it – it would be practically predestined for it ;)

I think those are already considerable dimensions.

It is all relative. In Switzerland, for example, a nurse earns TEUR 120/year; she also needs this annual salary if she wants to cover the ongoing rent and other costs. At the end of the day, these are _just_ numbers ;) Rhenish greetings