Floor plan EFH165 sqm first draft - Architect dissatisfied

You really have to fill up quite a bit. The property doesn’t look nearly as slanted in reality. We will definitely bring this up in the conversation next week

You will probably have to have the site surveyed anyway. Contour lines rarely lie, only if the terrain was altered during road construction. If the road is on a slope, there is often an additional 50 cm. The contour lines indicate at least 2 m on the property and 1 m in the building area. Take a photo of the neighboring property where filling has already been done. In general, a few photos help to better imagine the situation. We have not seen the property.

Tip from a practitioner. Take your phone and measure the slope on the terrain. Simply lay a batten on the slope and then put the phone on top of it. That is more accurate than such a statement from the architect. Which I would already doubt based on the contour lines.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos, we currently live a bit away from the property. But yes, we definitely need to keep an eye on that.

We have now done a little bit of drawing ourselves, it just didn’t let us rest.
We are not completely satisfied with it either, but at least it seems to get somewhat closer to our ideas. The living-dining-cooking area is still rather too small, unfortunately the wardrobe is no longer in a niche. We actually like the upper floor quite a bit.

We would appreciate any comments. I will also continue to report on what comes out of the hopefully upcoming meeting with the architect.

We know the dimensions are not 100% accurate, we would take 30 cm away at the top side of the children's rooms and add something at the bottom.

The 10m² utility room shrinks back down to 6.7 usable m² through the side entrance. For the utility room, I would also rather choose a "narrow space," not a square. Fuse box, inverter, battery storage, main connection box, water filter, all of that will be wall-mounted. The heating is also on the wall, drain pipes come to the wall, and so on. In the end, there remains 5m² of free space in the middle that no one can use, except for passing through.

I also wouldn’t use the valuable 5m² upstairs for a utility room, where in the end there’s only the washing machine. The bathroom also wastes too much space for my taste, considering the time spent there.

That way you could still fit the office upstairs and have downstairs the space for the dining area, living area, and kitchen that’s appropriate for a 165m² house. Why this cloning? People usually know each other if they live together 24/7.

And as I already said. Once the kids hit puberty, using the facilities for business or bathing/showering is anyway limited to one person at a time.

We have now drawn a little ourselves, it just wouldn’t let us be. We are not completely satisfied with it either, but at least it seems to come a bit closer to our ideas. The living-dining-cooking area is still somewhat too small, unfortunately the cloakroom is no longer in a niche. We actually quite like the upper floor. [...] We know the dimensions are not 100% correct, would remove 30 cm on the side of the children's rooms at the top and add something at the bottom

To create a counter-design I think is good. However, I would not try to develop it further but only use it for a short series of very specific purposes: A. Representation of the delta between the architect's design and your needs/wishes; B. as a comparative benchmark / pattern for the search for suitable proven building proposals / catalog houses; C. for an orientation inquiry (> "setting the course"), I can gladly create such an inquiry for you from the architect's design, your counter-design, and a comparison of the two. Your counter-design takes up half a meter more house length than the architect’s, additionally you “calculated” with symbolic paper walls, so at least another half meter more in the total length needs to be corrected (crossed out). And I tend to assume you started with the ground floor.

I will also continue to report on what comes out of the hopefully taking place conversation with the architect.

Why should such a conversation “hopefully take place”? – You are clients! (a client pays and commissions, that is a fundamental difference from a petitioner). Make clear to yourselves what you want and communicate it: EITHER improvements, i.e. the architect should maintain his fee claim but also deliver an acceptable equivalent OR you agree on acknowledgement of the failed attempt, part ways in peace and settle on reasonable remuneration for the (in my opinion poor) work delivered. After all, you now have to invest money in another planning route.

The option “hope and be surprised” only exists with the willingness to switch from the client role into the victim role!

In my assessment, either the architect is aware that he tried to cash in quickly with minimal effort and gratefully takes the golden bridge to discreet withdrawal or he lacks insight into his poor performance, in which case he is all the more the worst choice for a second chance.

I see you most likely taking the further path with an independent building consultant (construction method neutral, this can be another architect—but then probably HOAI-oriented remunerated—or gladly me), I have already named three of my colleagues (Beuler, Zink, and Freyermuth, unfortunately all focused on “finished” houses) several times (see forum search), and this “enumeration” is by far not exhaustive.

I also see it that way, that the space upstairs is basically wasted and expensive, and downstairs it is an absolutely tight and uncomfortable-looking box. The issue with the too-large bathroom has been criticized several times, but for some reason it doesn’t really get smaller. You can have an absolutely beautiful bathroom with 9 sqm without sacrificing comfort. Clever planning is what matters, less the size. You open the door and first feel like you’re running into the shower wall, then you have to go around the door to get to the sink. You can completely scratch the niche for the toilet, what's the point of all the empty space between the toilet and the bathtub? Also, the hallway upstairs with over 13 sqm is unnecessarily generous.

So you could still fit the office upstairs and have the space downstairs for dining area, living area, and kitchen that is appropriate for a 165 sqm house.

That sounds reasonable. And please also draw correctly with real measurements in your own design, otherwise it won’t work (walls, interior walls, furniture, stairs)!