Floor plan city villa with hipped roof approx. 170 sqm

Hello everyone,

my wife and I have been dealing with the topic of house construction for quite some time. As a result, I have also been reading along here in the forum for a while. First of all, thank you very much for your many helpful tips, which have already helped us a lot. Big compliments to the many users who actively participate here and share their knowledge with others.

Now the time has come for us as well. We have purchased a plot of land in Lower Saxony and are currently working with an architect to develop an optimal floor plan for us. We have now received a draft, which, however, in our eyes still has room for improvement here and there. For this reason, I have decided to put the floor plan up for discussion here and hope that we will get one or two suggestions/ideas on what we can improve. Maybe you will also immediately see things that "just don’t work" or are not practical for everyday life.

Note: the parceling plan, which shows the plot (green cross), is oriented north.

I look forward to any feedback! Attached is the questionnaire:

Development plan/restrictions

Size of the plot: 583sqm
Slope: no
Floor area ratio: 0.3
Floor space index: no specification
Building window, building line and boundary:
The plot is 22m wide and depending on the side 24.8m to 26.5m deep. The house should ideally extend more in width than in depth so that as much garden as possible remains in the southwest. Maximum house width: 22m (plot width) – 6m (width of double carport) – 3m (building limit where the carport is not located) = 13m. As for the depth, depending on the floor plan, we are thinking of 9m to a maximum of 11m.
Edge development: 3m
Number of parking spaces: no specification
Number of floors: one full floor
Roof shape: roof pitch must be at least 15 degrees
Style: no specification
Orientation: no specification
Maximum heights/limits: no specification

Client requirements

Style, roof shape, building type:
Preferred style: city villa with only one full floor (ground floor) and a hip roof on the upper floor; upper floor may only be 2/3 of the ground floor area to meet the condition of one full floor; whether the projection is on two building sides or a symmetrical projection (ground floor projects equally on all four sides) is initially not decisive and should result from the floor plan; the ground floor projection should be roofed like the upper floor .. no balcony or similar.
Basement, floors:
no basement, ground floor as full floor + upper floor as recessed floor with at most 2/3 the area of the ground floor
Number of people, age:
3 people aged 30 (woman), 29 (man), and 8 months (child)
Room requirements on ground floor, upper floor:
Ground floor: living/dining/cooking as one room, utility room, guest WC with shower, office/guest, hallway with wardrobe
Upper floor: sleeping, dressing room, 2 x child rooms, gallery (hallway)
Office: family use or home office:
usually home office, but sleeping accommodation for guests must be provided, possibly also usable as a playroom for children on the ground floor in younger years
Number of overnight guests per year: <5
Open or closed architecture:
open regarding the all-purpose room on the ground floor; however, closed regarding the stairs to the upper floor .. i.e. under no circumstances do we want stairs in the all-purpose room leading to the upper floor (generally nice, but suboptimal with children’s rooms upstairs)
Conservative or modern construction: modern
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open kitchen with kitchen island
Number of dining seats: 6 with option for up to 12 (for visitors etc.)
Fireplace: no
Music/stereo wall: no, only sideboard etc. for TV
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport:
double carport with storage room (6m x 9m) in the northeast of the plot on the building boundary
Utility garden, greenhouse: no
Further wishes/special features/daily routine, also reasons why this or that should or should not be:
Important for us is a generous wardrobe near the front door that allows jackets, shoes, etc. to be “put away” immediately after entering the house .. dirt is not carried far into the house and one does not trip over shoes, bags etc. every time.

House design

Who designed the plan:
The plan was made by an architect.

What do you particularly like? Why?

[*
Hallway does not feel like a narrow corridor but is opened comparatively wide
[*]Wardrobe offers enough possibilities to store jackets, shoes, etc.
[*]Connection between kitchen and utility room
[*]Connection between living room and office .. office is not "isolated" and integrated into the all-purpose room (also usable for children to play, for example)


What do you not like? Why?


[*]Staircase in the "dirty area" is not optimal
[*]Utility room accessible only through the kitchen .. potentially "annoying" in everyday life
[*]Kitchen might be hard to furnish (topic: storage space)
[*]The entire upper floor needs improvement:
[LIST]
[*]Both children’s rooms should be in the southwest with a view of the garden
[*]For that, master bedroom in the north/east
[*]Desired dressing room integrated but not really usable in size
[*]Bathroom on the upper floor not planned above the bathroom on the ground floor .. probably also not optimal

Preferred heating technology: gas

If you must make compromises, on which details/extras can you do without / cannot do without?
Basically, we would very reluctantly deviate from the presented construction style ("disguised" city villa).

Why is the design as it is now?
Our wish was a house without sloping ceilings upstairs, but it must of course comply with the development plan. The architect then designed a form of city villa with a sufficiently large projection on the ground floor as the basic concept. Regarding the room program, it is probably standard for a house of this size; we have no special requirements in this regard. Individual ideas such as connecting the office to the all-purpose room also came from this forum. Especially the floor plans from kaho674 were always very inspiring for new ideas (many thanks for that!).

What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?
We are looking for ideas on how to improve the floor plan and tailor it even more to our requirements (room orientation upstairs, see generally “what do you not like”) without increasing the house’s footprint.

A sensible and straightforward design. Your dressing room is more like a walk-in closet. There is too little space for dressing and undressing there. That wouldn’t bother me, but if you want that, make the bedroom a bit smaller. In the living area, no one looks toward the window. A matter of preference. The utility room with outside access and the kitchen are very practically arranged. This way the utility room can also serve as a "dirt sluice" when children come home happy and muddy from playing in/with water. Also great for dog people.

I fully share your self-criticism regarding the OG, and I would also find stacked wet rooms more favorable. For structural reasons, I would move away from the stone construction here.

whether the projection is on two sides of the building or a symmetrical projection (the ground floor protrudes equally on all four sides) is initially not decisive and should result from the floor plan;

However, the staircase position fixes the ground floor with the upper floor.

That's not my thing with the staggered storey. Generally no staggering, but only on two sides might make the house look crooked.
I would rather work with an extension on the ground floor; this creates a charming corner that is nice for a sheltered terrace.
But well, as long as you like it.
Speaking of crooked: the windows on the front also make it crooked. I would adjust the windows below. The pseudo-wardrobe there doesn’t need a window anyway.

Connection between kitchen and utility room

You have already noticed yourself that the trapped utility room is poorly placed.
It’s not just unfortunate, you are making the working area in the kitchen a main traffic route. You could soften that somewhat by docking the island to the exterior wall. Still, every way, whether to the utility room or refrigerator, leads into the view of sofa users...
Sofa in front of the windows is also not great, as those are floor-to-ceiling windows...

Individual ideas like the connection of the office to the open plan room also came from this forum.

Hm, that would be new to me, but whatever.
The second door makes the office almost impossible to furnish.

Take a look at the Maxime 610 from Viebrockhaus.... it was actually discussed here a few weeks ago without knowing it was the Maxime.
Possibly mirror the upper floor and move the stairs to the other side below.

By the way: from an architect I expect more creativity, even if it ultimately looks standard - at least everything should fit somehow.
Utility room squeezed into the corner is simply not a brilliant idea. Also, probably the utility room originally had a door to the hallway in the standard before you came and wanted the large hallway closet. The old small wardrobe could have been removed as well.

Hmm, that would be new to me, but whatever.

Well, I also paused about one to four times there

My thing with the staggered projectile isn’t that. Generally no stagger, but only on two sides the house might look crooked.

I would rather say: at least from one corner and two wings it doesn’t look as crooked in perspective as with setbacks on all sides.

Good morning everyone,

first of all, many thanks for the quick and substantial feedback. I will now go through the answers one by one.


It will probably come down to reducing the size of the bedroom in favor of the dressing room. But as mentioned, we are not really satisfied with the upper floor yet anyway. That means there will probably still be one or two changes there.
The thing with the window in the living area is correct. That is indeed a matter of taste. For us, it is not a must to be able to look out the window from the sofa, at most a "nice to have" if it works out.
I also see the connection of the utility room to the kitchen as practical. Only the missing connection to the hallway – as ypg also writes – could be suboptimal.


What exactly do you mean by "moving away from the stone construction"? Your concern is probably the static structure of the open space, right?
Otherwise, the upper floor definitely still needs to be adjusted and in doing so, the bathroom would probably be relocated as well (topic "wet rooms").


We are completely open as to how the "2/3 solution" will ultimately be realized. If it ends up being an extension – as you suggest – and that fits the rest of the requirements, then that is okay as well. This solution with the stepped structure on only two sides is initially just a proposal from the architect, which we would not reject but which does not have to be set in stone.
I forgot to write down "I don’t like it" regarding the window at the front. I feel exactly the same.

The idea of docking the island to the exterior wall was already considered. Still, you are right about the traffic routes. I think a smarter solution is needed for the utility room.

We will take a closer look at the Maxime610, thanks for the tip!

The connection of the office to the open space is used, for example, here by :

(post #200)

(post #78)

There was also one with a separate hallway for office/guest WC/utility room, but branching off from the kitchen. Like the one in the following link, only the kitchen unit was shorter and the small hallway is connected to the kitchen. Unfortunately, I can’t find exactly that one right now (I only have a screenshot of it on my PC).
(post #19)

And also in the Edition 425 (WOHNIDEE house) from Viebrockhaus there is such a solution (with a playroom for children).

But in the end, it doesn’t really matter, we just found the idea quite charming.