Floor plan - 135 sqm, 1.5 storeys, gable roof

Hello everyone,

I have been following here for a while and now it’s finally time for us to start the floor plan planning. We have the first appointment with the architect this week and have already exchanged our ideas with him as preparation. We then received a first draft, which we will discuss during our appointment. Additionally, we also created our own drafts (without consideration of statics, windows, staircase drawn much too small, etc. - really just very rough to make our ideas clear, I’m attaching those as well).


Development Plan/Restrictions
Plot size: 635 sqm
House size: 135 sqm
Number of floors: 1.5
Roof type: Gable roof
Maximum heights/limitations: Knee wall 1.20m
(We would have preferred to build a bungalow or city villa - unfortunately there are no plots available here and we are glad to have found one now, even if it means we have to accept 1.5 floors and a knee wall).

Requirements of the Builders
Basement, floors: no basement
Number of persons, age: 2 persons, 39 (children are 90% no longer planned)
Office: Home office once a week - although I usually work with my laptop in the living room
Guest sleepers: maybe 2 to 3 times a year, so far it has worked in the apartment without a guest room
Architecture: open
Construction style: modern
Kitchen: Cooking island will hardly fit, but it should be an open kitchen, possibly with a counter
Seating places: 4 to 6 - in case of visitors - but it would also work to spontaneously put a table in and rely on a kitchen counter in everyday life
Fireplace: rather no, for cost and space reasons
Balcony, roof terrace: Terrace
Garage, carport: Carport

Desired ground floor:
includes utility room, guest WC, hallway, living area (consisting of living room, kitchen, dining area/other)

Entrance area and ancillary rooms:
- small hallway, space for wardrobe
- utility room approx. 8 sqm, space for technology, washing machine, dog food & co.
- guest WC max. 3 sqm; no guest shower necessary

Living area:
- quick access from the entrance to the living area, ideally first to the kitchen
- living/kitchen/dining area as large as possible (ideally approx. 50 sqm), as little space wasted by other areas/rooms on the ground floor as possible
- kitchen possibly with island/counter if space is sufficient
- book corner with window seat if there is room (for info: I have about 1,000 books and a piano - they must be accommodated somewhere)
- staircase space-saving, preferably open/integrated freely in the living area to save hallway space


Desired upper floor:
includes bathroom, bedroom, dressing room, hobby room, additional room (possibly office, guest)

Bathroom
- bathroom with walk-in shower + bathtub (freestanding = nice to have)
- possibly wall partition for toilet (if it fits)

Sleeping area and dressing
- bedroom with walk-in closet/dressing area, if reasonable and feasible for the house size
- passage from bedroom to dressing room and to bathroom

Additional rooms
- hobby room with space for desk, crafting corners, small seating area
- additional room as office/gym/guest room or possibly as children's room after all - alternatively larger hallway/gallery with seating area and light well downwards


House design
Planner: planner/architect of a construction company
What is disliked? Why?:

[*]Narrow kitchen. I also have this in the apartment and I don’t want/need it anymore. Is it really not possible otherwise? Statics or other reasons?
[*]Stairs in the dirt area. Shoes, dirt, etc. I don’t want to walk through this every time I go upstairs.
[*]Dressing room in the slant. There is not much space left for wardrobes...
[*]Office 7 sqm. Does this make sense? If, contrary to all expectations, a child still comes, this would be the hobby room, which would then be much too small.
[*]Bathrooms. Does this make sense? I always thought they should be stacked above/below each other?
[*]Technology. Isn’t it also possible in the attic?

Price estimate according to architect/planner: 240k - it is also financially planned this way (without kitchen or additional furniture, including plot and exterior facilities - in total we are at 400k)
Preferred heating technology: air heat pump

If you have to give up, on which details/extensions can you forgo:very, very reluctantly on the dressing/closet room

What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?
How do we best proceed with the draft now? Are there ideas from your side that would bring us closer to our ideas and that we could/sould sensibly include in the discussion? Which ideas/concepts should we completely give up?

A few more remarks: When I read the other posts here, I always feel guilty because we are "only" building 135 sqm and everything seems so "small." Nevertheless, I want to get the best possible value for my money here. Financially, this size is the most sensible at the moment.

(PS: And in case the question comes: Why are children only 90% ruled out? There are many reasons for this – for example because having children does not work out, but one has not completely given up yet.)

Thank you very much in advance for your opinion.

Yay, lots of books, I think that's great! I also usually have the problem that in prefabricated floor plans there is little or no space for bookshelves. I don't understand the stairs in your floor plans. Aren't they way too short?

Yay, lots of books, I think that's great! I also usually have the problem that in prefabricated floor plans there is hardly or no space for bookshelves.

Yes, that is really a problem for me... terrible, isn't it?

I don't understand the staircase in your floor plans. Isn't it way too short?

These were our own (not really to be taken seriously) floor plan drafts without consideration of statics, windows, knee walls, etc. and in my floor plan app the staircase was by default only that small and I didn't pay attention to enlarging it In the planner's draft the size should be more accurate.

Site plan and development plan please

635 sqm of land is already quite nice, in other federal states one can almost only dream of that. What would the floor area ratio or plot ratio be there?

Unfortunately, the self-planned floor plans are practically worthless for two main reasons (in the sense that they are not even suitable for illustrating possible spatial layouts): first, the scales of doors / windows versus rooms versus furniture and other object symbols do not match front and back, and second, a "one-and-a-half-story" with 120 cm knee wall does not work if you think of the furnishing as if it were a "town villa" attic.

For these two reasons, the mental projection into realistic floor plans fails.

Site plan and development plan please

I haven’t had them in my hands yet myself – that’s why the builder took care of it. I hope to get them at the appointment this week.

Unfortunately, the self-planned floor plans are practically worthless for two main reasons (in the sense that they are not even suitable for illustrating possible space layouts): firstly, the scales of doors/windows ./. rooms ./. furniture and other object symbols don’t match at all, and secondly, a "one-and-a-half-storey" with 120 cm knee wall doesn’t work if you think of the furnishing as if it were a "town villa" attic.

For these two reasons, the conceptual projection into realistic floor plans fails.

To focus on the designer’s drafts, I would gladly remove our own variants, but unfortunately that is no longer possible. Please ignore them if they are no good. We actually started by playing around with bungalow floor plans and then planned with a town villa. We only found out about the 1.20 m knee wall about a week ago. I haven’t updated the "scribbles" since then. They are only meant to somehow visualize our ideas regarding room layout – e.g., open kitchen, stairs in the living area. It’s clear that the drawings are not realistic. That is then the task of the designer – unfortunately, I am not one. It’s quite possible that our ideas are not feasible. If that is the case, please feel free to tell me – then I will try not to insist on them during the conversation with the architect.