Floor plan classic single-family house 5 rooms south access

Hello,

we are planning a new building and I would appreciate your opinion on our design. What would you change and why?

We see our ideas quite well accommodated and have no better ideas for the ground floor. The plans are from us and are used for discussions with construction companies.

Many details are still missing, such as carport on the east side (boundary distance), access to the attic, window sizes, interior doors, bathroom fittings... We are also still working on the room sizes on the upper floor but do not see any problems there.

Questionnaire:
- Plot size: 800m²
- Slope: no
- Site coverage ratio/floor area ratio: 0.3 / 0.5,
- Main building max 150m² footprint
- Building window, building line and boundary: 20x13m, 5m distance
- Number of parking spaces: 1-2 covered
- Number of floors: 2. Full floors to be integrated into the roof, “attic space is [..] laterally limited by the intersection of the rising masonry with the outer shell of the roof, whereby the intersection is max. 1.2m above the top edge of the ground floor ceiling.”
- Roof shape: gable roof up to 48°
- Maximum heights/limits: max 9m height
- Others: access from the south side

Technology:
Gas and controlled residential ventilation, underfloor heating, possibly solar thermal if we decide on KFW 55

Why did the design turn out as it is now?
We worked a lot on various standard floor plans but nothing really fit, especially since we do not approach the house from the north: long corridors, poor orientation to the garden, front door in the carport/near the cars. We started with 4 small rooms upstairs, front door on the east side and approx. 8.2x11.8m footprint.

What we like:

General:
- Front door visible from the street, no conflicts with carport(s)
- House as far away as possible from the (quiet) streets
- Orientation of house, garden, terrace to the sun, no windows on the north side
- Technology on ground floor/bathroom on upper floor stacked, away from living spaces and towards the street (utilities)

Ground floor:
- Large living room with open kitchen despite separate room on ground floor
- Office without sloped ceilings (use in the evening)
- Space under the open staircase (stroller)
- Long narrow pantry (+ network technology)

Upper floor:
- Large rooms
- Washing machine/dryer in bathroom
- Bedroom on the north side with sun from the east

What could be better:
- Space for controlled residential ventilation and heating probably too small
- Office on ground floor could be a bit larger
- Kitchen could be moved further toward east/stairs

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
For now, I’m going into hiding

boxandroof

You probably won't be able to fit the technology into the 2.8m², I think, it's not just about gas and [Kontrollierte-Wohnraumlüftung]...

Then looking at wood on the back side of the island is common, but do you want to look at the kitchen flank on the other side (facing the hallway)? Add 65 cm of wall there. Either half-height or even full ceiling height. That makes you more flexible with tall cabinets, wherever you want to put them.

Are there any more rooms for technology besides the 2.8 sqm? That won't work. No way. Either the craftsmen will curse you. Or both.

The path from pantry/kitchen is too long. Or the pantry is poorly labeled. Like a vacuum cleaner storage/laundry room/archive.

Thinking about the knee wall just now exhausts my imagination. Unfortunately, there are no furniture pieces in the dressing room either, but no matter how, so little will fit in it that almost more will fit in the drawn-in closet in the bedroom. Please draw the planned furniture in the dressing room. Result... single row 60 cm works, and that's it.

I find your room doors too narrow and the windows too small. In the hallway, I don’t see a proper cloakroom space. Where are the washing machine and dryer supposed to go, the electric meter, where is the utility sink in the [Technikraum]? For the gas heating system, you also need a large water tank, which takes up a lot of space. I don’t believe you can fit that into just under 3sqm. In your dressing room, you can only fit cupboards on one side. Your hallway upstairs will definitely become quite dark.

Best regards
Sabine

Why is the office bigger? 10 sqm are actually more than enough. I don’t understand the bathroom downstairs, no sink but 2 showers (that’s how it looks). and the passage to the left on the plan will not work. As mentioned, almost all doors are too small. Everything under 90 cm should be an emergency solution. The storage room will not work because it’s way too tight, cooling devices are about 60 cm deep and there is less than 60 cm left for walking through. The hallway on the upper floor will simply be pitch dark. And the 1.2 m rooms, in the end they have just about 1.15 m, even less if tiled. Much of this will not work.

Thank you for the feedback. Yes, many things still don’t work in detail.

Is the general direction suitable as a working basis?
What would you possibly do differently regarding the location/orientation on the property and the layout of the rooms, stairwell/hallway/front door?

[..]do you want to look at the kitchen side on the other side (facing the hallway)? Put up a 65cm wall there. Either half-height or even full height. That makes you more flexible with tall cabinets, wherever you want them.

We were thinking of a counter, with the worktop overhanging, or a second staggered overhanging worktop. The half-height wall is a good idea!

I find your room doors too narrow and the windows too small.

Which windows, all of them? For the doors, I will try to get at least 90cm.

I don’t see a real coat rack space in the hallway. Where are the washing machine and dryer supposed to go?

Coat rack/clothes hooks should be under and next to the stairs. We haven’t worked that out in detail yet.

We want the dryer/washing machine in the bathroom upstairs.
They would also fit in the pantry – we measured and also saw it live that way (Ikea) with 115cm depth. That’s why we came to approx. 120cm for the pantry, because we liked the size.

the electric meter, where is the utility sink in the utility room? For the gas heating, you also need a large water tank that takes up a lot of space.

A utility sink..?!

Yes, the utility room has to be bigger. What would be an adequate size?

For the gas heating, I was shown refrigerator-sized units including water tank. Also, the controlled residential ventilation system should go into this room, as well as probably the electric and water meters. Some technical equipment (network, telephone, etc.) should still go into the pantry.

In your dressing room, you can only put cabinets on one side.

Thanks – we will measure that more precisely with furniture this week, we have some flexibility there.

Your hallway upstairs will definitely become quite dark.

We were thinking about frosted glass in the door to the bathroom and possibly another window next to the front door or in the stairwell. And artificial light.

I don’t understand the bathroom downstairs, no sink but 2 showers (that’s how it looks).

Corner sink. Although we are open and don’t want to plan the bathrooms in detail ourselves.

Why is the office bigger? 10 sqm is normally more than enough.

We would like to have a sofa in that room plus many shelves.