Floor plan design for a two-family house on a slope

I don’t find the design really exciting; it works, but creative is something else. Especially the front view would be a no-go for me. Better make large window areas than always the same double terrace door. Or did you negotiate such great conditions when ordering the same door eight times?

Under NO circumstances leave out the wall between the bedroom and the dressing room. Rather between the bathroom and the dressing room (if controlled residential ventilation is available).

The bay window is gone, thank God, so the piano also goes away.

Overall, there is little storage space for a family of four and (if I interpret that correctly) possibly even five. Maybe reduce the three children’s rooms downstairs in favor of more storage space.

Personally, I would also prefer to have the kitchen/living room with garden access. Are you considering home-grown vegetables? Herbs? And if you quickly need some parsley, always run down to the garden? At least I would then plan a staircase from the terrace into the garden.

Basement for the in-laws in the basement and only accessible from outside? So if they need something from the basement, does that mean through the garden? What is supposed to be stored there? So beverage crates probably not, right?

Visually it no longer has anything to do with Bauhaus, I find the exterior view old-fashioned and boring. There is more possible. But you have to like it. The floor plan works.

We also came up with the idea of the sliding door just yesterday. Your reasoning/derivation exactly matches ours! Thank you!

What do you mean by "Better make large window areas than always the same double terrace door"? For example, should the entire south side on the ground floor be glass? That would certainly be a highlight! However, it will be particularly complex statically. Or do you mean occasionally replacing the terrace door of about 2.5m*2.5m with a window where it is not necessary? That would only make sense for one, at most two, doors/windows on the ground floor.

We discussed the variant with the living room downstairs / children’s room upstairs for a long time and ultimately decided on the living room upstairs. But I can understand your preference. The option with the stairs is still open. Friends of ours solved it that way afterward as well. On the terrace, you might find a spot for a small herb bed if needed.

The basement (attic floor) is only accessible from the outside. Yes, the access can only be via the stairs on the side. The "garden" only starts further down. Storage should be limited to things that are not needed too often. Summer/winter tires, a trampoline that is taken down over the cold season, etc. There should also be a small accessible storage in the attic floor. It is also possible that if it is rented out to others, we will use the basement (attic floor) as a tool shed. A garden shed is also to be built later for more storage space.

Yes, unfortunately we have moved away from Bauhaus style. It started with the fact that a flat roof is not permissible and, for example, ends in more complex statics, hence additional costs, for 12m window areas. Our highlight remains the terrace/step shape of the house.

I find the front view simply boring. It looks a bit like a hotel, always the same windows. You could vary that. The bay window is gone, for example, you no longer need this tripartition on the ground floor. Think about how you want to furnish and adjust the windows if necessary. For example, a large window area with a sliding or folding door in the middle, maybe a window strip slightly higher up in the living area, the kitchen designed differently again, etc. I don’t know how you live, what is important to you (TV has to be here and there, then it follows where it’s better not to have windows, for example; you have an old sideboard that absolutely must be set up, where is space for that? That can have an impact on the windows, etc.). What makes sense in the kitchen? Rather a long window strip on the side, but only one door to the front and more space for tall cabinets??? All options, but three times the same double terrace door and the same at the bottom would be too dull for me.

Also with the roof shape: well, flat roof is not allowed, but what is "sitting on top" now is somehow not great either. Offset gable roof? That gives the mother-in-law unit a nice skylight!

You have arranged everything well (however, I refer again to the storage space!), but as it looks now for me the house also looks like: everything was just put together and this is what came out. I’m still missing a bit of a red thread, the “aha!” experience. It won’t be a bad house, but boring. (in my opinion)

To begin with, the confession: it’s not easy to pull off a really great move with this nightmare lot.

I don’t find the design very exciting; it works, but creativity is something else. Especially the front view would be a no-go for me. Better make large window surfaces than always the same double terrace door.

I agree. The valley-side facade looks like a “spot the difference” picture: at the top center, the otherwise always identical two-leaf window door in the usual format is now single-leaf. It really looks like the brother-in-law only needed two of these terrace doors and the rest of the ten-pack was taken for this project. In terms of creativity, really a straight six [meaning a failing grade]. The facade is paced like in a concrete skeleton construction. So, at this point the association is “hotel fortress,” without the stepped floors and the hillside location, this would be how office buildings are done. This harshness is reinforced by the complete lack of concept on the two side facades: not counting the doors for the mudroom/cellar, you see four or five elements in four or five different formats, and the horizontal windows look oddly lowered. On the mountain-side facade, despite only two elements, nothing fits together: the front door with sidelight does not match the otherwise sparse window situation of this facade, and the transom looks strange because seen from street level it is rather a basement window.

Always the same windows. There could be some variation. The bay window is gone, you don’t need this tripartition on the ground floor anymore.

... is a very constructive suggestion, especially the note,

Think about how you want to furnish and adjust the windows accordingly if necessary. For example, large window surfaces with sliding or folding doors in the middle, a window band placed somewhat higher in the living area, kitchen designed differently again, etc.

... to develop the variation of the exterior from the interior.

Overall, I find the design very unfortunate from the outside. The floor plans are quite okay, maybe a bit very turn-of-the-decade 1970s/80s. From the outside, everything resists me finding even a hint of beauty. The top floor, as seen from street level, is a basement. Already because of that, the building looks like it sank two meters deep after a landslide. The upper apartment makes the overall impression of a holiday apartment. The steeper roof on the mountain side intensifies the awkwardly proportioned impression from the street side and in its asymmetry shows no relation to either the building or the terrain on the side. The roof just lies crooked for no recognizable reason. From the sides, the building looks as if everything that projects in front of the top floor is an addition. The horizontal window is confusing again because it lies on both sides of this apparent boundary of the addition. But the pièce de résistance is the terrain funnel in front of the bathroom window. And after this rollercoaster of proportions, the culture shock comes as soon as you walk around the house and see the strict valley-side facade.

This combination of proportion turbulence from three sides and lack of originality from the fourth side is probably unique, but unfortunately, not successful at all.

Against the background of the floor plans, this does not have to be a contradiction; it could just as well be a causal connection.

But that doesn’t matter: we are still at the very beginning here; in R. Hotzenplotz the turnaround was achieved starting at about post #400.

Staggered gable roof? Gives the mother-in-law unit a nice skylight!

... is another constructive suggestion I could agree with.

Hm, from the south side that will be a huge lump and when it is then simply tiered downward so unimaginatively, it becomes boring and looks uninspired.

A sloping plot is a challenge, but you can create pretty cool possibilities there with clever ideas. I once again refer to the media library of Bayerischer Rundfunk and to watch the "Dream Houses" shows here. Often houses are also built on slopes there. You can definitely get one idea or another from that.

I am not an architect but off the top of my head I would think about breaking up the front view a bit:

Place the kitchens on the ground floor and first floor above each other; kitchens are preferably placed on the east side, but it doesn’t have to be. Then the entrance for the ground floor would also be sensibly placed from west to east. So mirror the ground floor plan.

Pull the kitchen forward. Put exaggeratedly: move the bay window from the middle to the side. That also creates a nicer terrace for the mother-in-law apartment. Right now it’s rather a narrow, hardly usable towel. So extend the ground floor for the kitchen to the south on the east side. Then a completely different window arrangement emerges: for the kitchen you can then put a door to the terrace towards the west and enjoy a nice southern view with a band of windows (and plan a large work surface for the kitchen there for example, that makes working really fun!) Island facing the terrace/west and through the door onto the terrace you can basically bring the kitchen outside in summer and you have a terrace protected towards the east with southern and western sun.

This loosens up the facade towards the front, upstairs you get a terrace where you can also place a seating area (you could consider making a protective wall on the east side, then the terrace also becomes cozy and not so exposed and hardly visible from the street) and the terrace on the ground floor is basically the extension of the kitchen, which I find pretty great in summer.

I’m attaching one of my dreaded, quickly scribbled hand sketches (as always completely detached from any scale, just as an idea). The scribble on the left side is supposed to represent stairs to the garden; for the front I have assumed a south-facing staggered gable roof:

The more you "pull" the individual levels southwards, thus staggering them against each other, the larger the respective terraces become. Since the property has a lot of space in the front, I would definitely do that!