Floor plan, elongated single-family house, integrated garage, no basement

Hello everyone,

we are currently working on the floor plan designs. We approached a general contractor with the following specifications:

[*]Outer dimensions approx. 18.0 x 7.5m, solid with 42.5cm bricks
[*]Room program ground floor: entrance area, cloakroom, technical/storage room, WC including shower, straight staircase, pantry, living/dining/kitchen (kitchen on the north side with a view of the driveway), (garage)
[*]Room program upper floor: 3 bedrooms, bathroom, utility room + hobby room
[*]Two full stories, attic with 45°

In the meantime, we have received the two attached floor plans back: one with an integrated garage, one without (instead with an additional carport). I would appreciate your feedback.

And here is the completed questionnaire:

Development plan: §34
Plot size: > 1,000m²
Slope: no
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 2 full stories
Roof shape: gable roof
Style: classic, simple
Orientation: SW
Number of persons, age: 4 persons, (0 - 35)
Space requirements ground floor, upper floor: see above
Guests per year: rare
Open or closed architecture: open
Conservative or modern construction: conservative
Open kitchen, kitchen island: gladly
Number of dining seats: if possible 8
Fireplace: yes
Music/stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: yes, see floor plans
Useful garden, greenhouse: no

House design
Planner: planner of a construction company
Price estimate according to architect/planner:
Personal price limit for the house, including equipment: €350,000
Preferred heating technology: air-water heat pump + boiler + wood stove or gas condensing boiler + boiler + wood stove

Why is the design as it is now?: Specifications given to the planner of the construction company. Design 2 (without integrated garage) was created after the living/dining/kitchen area in design 1 felt small.

Further to note: approx. 5m southeast of the house is an approx. 25m high beech tree (shading, dirt, ...). View in all directions (except E, SE, very good).

Hello,

First of all, nice to see a draft again that breaks the mold.

In Bavaria, there is the so-called 16m privilege.

So if you plan a house wall longer than 16m, the required setback areas increase.
That was also the reason for us to be exactly 15.99m long and not 16.49m.

Since I don’t know how the house will be positioned on the plot, I can’t make a statement about that, but you should consider it.

Regarding the floor plans:

1. Where does your desire for the external dimensions of the house come from? What dictates the shape of the house? Since you have given the specifications (18x7.5) yourselves, you must have had a reason. What is the reason for that?

2. Why the explicit request for 42cm masonry? It is not necessary to fulfill the energy saving ordinance.
We also have a house width of 7.49m, but with 36.5cm masonry. Cleverly arranged, you don’t notice the shallow depth of such a house at all. However, you have to use every cm of depth cleverly.
That is also where my biggest criticism of your draft comes in.

- On EG1, the dining/living area would definitely be too narrow for me. I find EG2 better.
- However, I don’t like the layout of the common room in either draft. In your case, I would dispense with the pantry, then you can also make a kitchen access directly from the hallway, so the living room is no longer a pure passage room.

- I find OG1 more cleverly designed than OG2. The access to child “12” in the OG2 plan restricts the other room considerably.

- The T-solution will definitely not work in either case. That will all be way too tight.

Most important to me, however, is still the matter of the 16m. The feasibility of both drafts depends on that.

Regards

Here is a suggestion for inspiration, but with a length of 15.99m, in case that should become relevant.

The garage was removed, replaced by a carport, as in your second draft.

If you also want access to the living room, you could reduce the hobby and technology rooms so that a door can be added to the upper living room wall in the plan. Alternatively, furnish differently.

What is the hobby room actually planned for?

If it absolutely must be 42cm masonry, that should also be possible with this design, although I still don't understand the purpose of it (see question above).

Since all of these are quite spacious room sizes, you could now play around and swap as you like:

Suggestion 1:

Swap the two children's rooms with bath and the parents' room. This should allow a better layout of the dressing room/bedroom. Possibly even with a separate children's bathroom instead of the storage room?

Suggestion 2:

Swap the hobby and technology rooms from the ground floor with the parents' area from the upper floor. It depends on what the hobby room is intended for. Upstairs a children's bathroom, downstairs a parents' bathroom with a separate guest toilet.
This way, everything really relevant for old age would be together on the lower level.

The property would probably interest me, not only me. Do you have a site plan at hand showing the building envelope and house?

Hello matte1987, ypg,

unfortunately, I currently do not have a site plan on hand. The reason for the rather elongated shape is the proximity to a listed building. 18.5m or 16.5m or 7.5m are not set in stone and still variable as long as the overall shape is "elongated."

Thanks for the hint about the 16m privilege. I need to look into that.

The type of masonry/brick is also not yet defined. For planning, we are currently starting with 42.5cm.

We also find the 3.70m width on EG1 for the open space/dining-living area a bit tight. 4.20m, on the other hand, narrows the hallway a bit. Or are 2.26m for stairs+hallway still sufficient?

We have also considered removing the pantry and integrating it into the utility room. However, we have not committed to that yet (2 doors from kitchen to storage)...

The hobby room is used, among other things, for indoor cycling in winter, sewing, and computer/office.

We are also not really satisfied yet with the layout of OG2 regarding the children's rooms. I also find the solution for access to the attic so far only suboptimal, although the area in front of the second staircase landing seems quite cozy to me (secluded, window, ...).

Interesting idea to swap the master bedroom with the hobby room on the ground floor. We will reconsider that.

Thanks already for your input.

A "Servus" to everyone,

the next stage of the planning is available. I have now also attached the exterior views.

What we have changed:

[*]it is moving towards "without integrated garage," but with a separate carport/tool shed
[*]the area of the pantry on the ground floor has been changed, but is still not satisfactory for us
[*]on the upper floor, the "vertical" hallway has been eliminated, instead integrated into the master bedroom, which is now really big
[*]enlarging/aligning the children's rooms (by reducing the utility room)
[*]floor plan bathroom upper floor, but still not 100% satisfactory

Are there any ideas for the pantry area (or completely omit it and integrate the majority into the "technical" room and a small part into the storage area under the stairs)?

How do you see the entrance area from the hallway into the living room? It still doesn’t really feel right to me. Possibly a sliding door? Or move the stove to the upper left corner of the living room and combine the entrance to the living room/kitchen?

Any ideas for the layout of the upper floor bathroom?

Regards,
Christoph.