Floor plan draft for a 220m² single-family house

They suggested planning the basement beneath the stairs. A partial basement. If you want more than that, then from a cost perspective only a full basement makes sense.

Unfortunately, I am at work now and have the calculations

Poured something out again. Well, my ideas are running out at this time. Classic - Stino - boring. But sometimes you still see something you can use. Otherwise, trash. Good night.

I don't find it bad at all. I mostly like it quite a lot. Off the top of my head, the only points I can think of that we should consider apart from the actually somewhat boring exterior look are:

1) The bedroom looks majestic and nicely central on the upper floor. However, the old design had the advantage that the partner who gets up early could leave the sleeping area immediately in the morning, shower, get dressed, and not have to pass through the sleeping area even once. In this design, you always have to walk through the bedroom, which disturbs the partner who is still sleeping. That would be a deal breaker in its current form. We have very different sleeping times/day routines. The architect's design took this into account.

2) Do we have a wardrobe there? Only one closet in front of the stairs?

3) The pantry can surely be integrated with the kitchen.

4) I don't yet know to what extent the living and dining area is acceptable or whether it will appear too angular/boxy in reality. Without measurements, of course, everything is hard to judge. What I do like, on the other hand, is the noticeably faster connection from the study to the toilet. The access between kitchen and dining area is of course much better here.

If we really need to turn everything upside down again or make major adjustments, the proposal definitely offers good impulses! Many thanks for that!

By the way, I find the statement that you first need a room program surprising. All I took away from reading was that you no longer want to change the basic orientation.

We don’t yet know how things will proceed. I wrote that we would have preferred to build exactly as the architect planned – that is what I posted second to last. This was final for us, and we had naturally been very closely connected to it. The fact that it turned out differently with the structural engineering, etc., than we thought at least calls the previous room program into question. And I simply meant that it is probably better to first come back to a final room program before planning details in the bathrooms, kitchen, etc. Of course, certain things must be kept in mind – an island, for example, does not fit every room design.

I suspect we may have just misunderstood each other a bit.

Your statement that we basically don’t want to change the basic setup is completely correct. But reality might have caught up with us. It’s possible that it can be fixed with manageable adjustments. But it’s also quite possible that the necessary adjustments—as so often—cause other things to follow, and then suddenly there’s no coherent design anymore. Even shortening the house could point in this direction. I might not be able to just shorten on the left side and not on the right side without destroying the symmetry and the exterior look. There might be a bit of leeway on the left, but probably not on the right. These are questions that are swirling around in my head. In the end, I need an implementable room program and not one that looks great on paper but will never be implemented.

By the way, won’t the passage past the fireplace get a bit too narrow?

The last design (the one that wasn’t coordinated with us) and for which there was the 3D visualization includes, besides the fireplace, this weird cabinet. That was also a structural thing. I said that’s not acceptable. Either a small unobtrusive fireplace or nothing at all. Definitely not such a bulky cabinet.

After having some distance for a few days following the bad news, I want to sit down calmly with it again tomorrow.

I have suggested to the company that the architect include me in the next session so that I sit directly at the PC when something is being drawn in. Otherwise, it drags out again for 5-6 meetings and just as many weeks… I’d rather take a day off and work through as much as possible then.

At least we get the costs under control by giving up the hobby room in the basement, making the rooms there smaller, and building only a partial basement.

=> from our experience, a partial basement is not significantly cheaper than a full basement because the structural engineering for a partial basement is more complicated. For us, it was not worth it with a partial basement – significantly less space but hardly less cost.

In my opinion, that does not justify getting a Schlumpf as an architect

I agree, there are really experienced architects in Cologne for the building style you want with presentable references. Not that I am saying the architect from your construction company is bad, but the really good people on the market work independently.

Only if I’m putting that much money into it would I really put pressure on the construction company if they can only offer me such a low-grade architect.

I feel the same! With such a big budget, amateurs should not be experimenting!

It may also be a winding staircase. Not ideal but it would be an approach. However, during this thread several users said for such a house they see no other staircase than a straight one or that a straight staircase absolutely fits our floor plan.

A straight staircase is great, but a somewhat more space-saving staircase with landings and appropriate width also looks very generous. Alternatives to the space-consuming straight staircase should be presented here.

. A partial basement. If you want more than that, only a full basement makes sense cost-wise.

I agree, see above!

A straight staircase is great, but a slightly more space-saving staircase with a landing and appropriate width also feels very generous. The aim here is to show alternatives to the space-consuming straight staircase.

I would be cautious there. In my opinion, the staircase with landing is not more space-saving than the straight one. Rather the opposite. Generous staircases always tend to bloat the house quickly; there is great potential for savings but also a great luxury factor.

Attached a bit of tinkering. I have stretched the living room to size again so that there are no corners inside. But then it gets quite large. I don’t know where we end up with the square meters here – my program doesn’t provide that. I entered the external dimensions as a reference. These can always be related quite well to the original design to compare the size. However, I couldn’t find the external dimensions of the original.

One shouldn’t be distracted by the exterior view. Unfortunately, my program doesn’t know Bauhaus style either.

You would have to decide between a pantry or an extra wardrobe. I’m in favor of a pantry – of course, it can easily be integrated into the kitchen. The wardrobe at the staircase is 2.50 m long. That fits quite a bit and the closet in the original design was never that large for a long time. I still left it as a wardrobe because, in my opinion, the kitchen is also large enough.

I suggested to the company that the architect include me in the next session so that I can sit directly at the PC when something is being drawn in. Otherwise, it will drag on with 5-6 conversations and just as many weeks... I'd rather take a day off and work through as much as possible there.

Great idea. I would do that too and take the woman along right away. So gather ideas.

The chimney in the living room is rubbish. How about integrating it into the office / bathroom? Also in the architect's plan, I mean. Of course, this only works with a flat roof at this spot.

The chimney in the living room is crap. How about integrating it into the office / bathroom? Also in the architect’s plan, I mean. Of course, this only works with a flat roof at this spot.

The fireplace was originally meant to serve as a visual room divider between the living and dining areas in an open living room. We are already considering skipping it. Because it’s quite expensive. We would probably do that rather than have it end up somewhere at the edge of the room.

I don’t like the strict separation of bathroom / dressing room and bedroom at all. Especially not the dressing room, which you have to go through the bathroom to get to every time. The idea of entering the entire master area through one door is better. The rooms just have to be arranged as before so that the sleeping area is in one corner, either left or right.

I’m going to take a break now. Today I’ll sit down calmly with the existing documents and the thoughts from here and make some notes.