Floor plan design: Single-family house with 4 bedrooms and an office, 160 sqm

Thanks for the aerial photo. At least you can see that no one has a garage on the street. One parking space for a family is far too few.

according to §34 "A development is permissible if it fits into the surrounding development in terms of type and extent of development, construction method, and the built-up area of the plot"

Where do these details come from?

Development plan/restrictions
Plot size: 550 sqm
Building envelope: 12m x 20m
Slope: no
Site occupancy index: 0.2
Floor area ratio: 0.4
Number of floors: 2
Roof type: hipped roof
Architectural style: classic city villa
no development plan, §34

But whatever. Apparently, your desire is to build a city villa. Whether it meets your needs, I do not see. Some things are deceptive if you don’t have to draw load-bearing walls or habitable dimensions.
...if the bay window measures 2.90, then the living room obviously no longer has length. That is far too little for five people. How should a family feel comfortable there and watch TV relaxed?
The doors are placed without a plan. Except in the dressing room, there is nowhere to fit a wardrobe behind. The open space is not walkable as it is now, for example.

In any case, especially in the §34 area, you should not do the planning yourselves, but go to an architect!

Compare the Town & Country Lichthaus 152 with the Stadthaus 152. With the Lichthaus you can see what is still possible under a gable roof. Storage space, study room

Here is an aerial photo.

That is already helpful. Even better would also be a cadastral excerpt.

Bay windows are not much cheaper than enlarging the whole bay depth of the house

I have now understood that it is probably more sensible to plan the house a bit larger than to have an additional bay window.

Correct objection, wrong conclusion. But explaining it in a way that a self-planning layperson would understand would go too far here:

It would really make sense to have someone plan who has studied this for years and has been working in the profession ever since.

Definitely, especially in the 34-series area, you should not do the planning yourselves but go to an architect!

There is no development plan, so we are free in the planning. We simply prefer a hip roof. But I can also understand that a gable roof offers more usable area.

You can do an architecture wish concert if money is no object. Hip instead of gable already costs so much that you could get a "bay window" for it; for both "bay window" AND hip you could already get a garage (with gold trim on the gate). Whoever can still say "yes" at this point certainly has my first-class Swabian envy.

We haven't yet decided on a construction method (solid or prefab house). Would designs from an architect be independent of the construction method? Or does this have to be planned from the start?

The decision about the construction method is wisely left by the builder to the result of the decision-making during the resting phase. See also "A house building roadmap, also for you: the phase model of the HOAI!" It makes sense to plan it from the start—but not from the very beginning during the preliminary draft, rather only at the beginning of the design phase.
Plan the house with an architect (without quotation marks!—i.e., a freelance architect) up to the preliminary draft ("Module A" of my house building roadmap), and then carry out the decision-making during the resting phase before transitioning to the design planning. In this, you ask a handful of house providers ("prefab" and "solid") for orientation offers based on the preliminary draft and, at the same time, for catalog houses that most closely resemble the preliminary draft.
Note: a family with three children practically excludes the possibility of adopting a catalog house unchanged!
A freelance building consultant (e.g., the architect or one of my not so few colleagues) will then advise on adapting the catalog design (often by "extending a catalog base model in the wheelbase"—explained in the post "Changing a floor plan in size").
At the end of the resting phase, one then decides whether the architect should refine the preliminary draft into a solid (stone) design or wooden design, or alternatively whether a catalog design should be adapted.

I’m bringing this post back to the front. We have since made progress with the floor plan and, as was recommended here, have worked with an architect. So far, the following floor plan has been created.


What we like: The children’s rooms on the upper floor are relatively the same size and the layout suits us. We can fit a small desk in the bedroom. On the ground floor we have space for the wardrobe and the utility room is also sufficiently large. The distances between the living room and the upper floor are short, so you practically have a separate area.

Where we still see potential: The kitchen seems very small to us. Also, there feels like a lot of unused space in the living/dining room. Additionally, we are not sure if the living room will feel very cramped with a width of 3m. The bathroom on the upper floor could also be somewhat larger or we don’t quite like the arrangement here.

We would appreciate further ideas / comments. Thank you!

Good evening, at first glance I notice that your bathroom on the ground floor is planned as an interior room. Is that what you want? A three-meter-wide living room is modest. Which sofa is supposed to fit there and for how many people? Unfortunately, a "dead corridor" has also been created between the living and dining areas. Best regards