Floor plan for a semi-detached house on a hillside - optimization ideas?

Hello,

attached is a floor plan for a semi-detached house (only one half of the duplex shown) on a hillside with a request for comments.
The semi-detached house is to be built on a plot of land; both halves are to be rented out.
Currently, the plot still belongs to the outer area. In the immediate neighborhood (to the north, as well as on the property to the east) houses of comparable size (height, floor area ratio, floor space index) have been built in recent years with an exemption permit. The informal preliminary building inquiry to the municipality regarding the conditions is in process, but I am preparing for a longer discussion.



The following considerations have been made:
- Width max 14m (plot width slightly > 20m)
- 3 comparably sized (bed)rooms with at least approx. 15m2
- 3rd room more important than garage (border construction of the garage probably not possible due to hillside location)
- Carport as a replacement for garage
- Studio room if approved, otherwise a shallow hipped roof or green roof
- Living room/kitchen on the "entrance level"

The following questions remain or I don’t really like:
- Living room/kitchen maybe in the basement with access to the garden?
- If the roof terrace is approved, waive the balcony at the living room?
- Shape of the living room difficult to furnish. (Goal: TV and view of the garden from the sofa)
- Prefer a garage over the 3rd room? (rental suitability)
- No (or little) space for wardrobe/shoe cabinet in the hallway (width approx. 1.35m)
- Too many windows? (We have this in our house because we love it! Here it is also about rental suitability)
- Planning so far as a semi-detached house with party wall. Might also be possible as a house with 2 residential units and a “normal” soundproof wall. Advantages? Disadvantages?

Once the basics are clarified with the municipality, an architect will of course be commissioned – and hopefully one with their own creative ideas, as I certainly will not insist on my sketch .

The basis for my design is the experience from long, exciting discussions with the architect for planning our own residential house. Considerable spatial imagination as a graduate engineer and experience in the field of floor plans for VIP aircraft (Yes, the sheikh who wants his living, sleeping, audience rooms in airplanes that normally fly 300 passengers on vacation). Please also excuse the use of this “painting software” (you can’t even mirror the semi-detached half). I used the boring evenings on business trips and had to resort to an online tool. Let’s see if I find time for a design in Catia …

Thank you for all critical comments :-P

Holger

I would put cooking/eating/living in the basement.

On the ground floor, I would remove the corner at the carport.
Plan entrance area with guest toilet and wardrobe.

I think a 3rd room would be better than a garage.

A studio with a roof terrace would be amazing.

How do you get to the door when the car is parked in the carport? I would also put the kitchen and living room downstairs. I would divide the utility/storage room between both floors. The two rooms in the south have few or poor furnishing options.

Here are a few points that I noticed:


- I don't like the hallway on the ground floor: too narrow and too long, and as you say, no coat rack possibility. Here I would either do without the shower in the guest WC or make it smaller (we can manage with <3sqm including the shower, you don't need a 1.40m shower there) or reduce room 3 a bit and build a coat rack niche there.


- The right area in the basement hallway seems pointless to me (where the window is above the bathtub). Better to enlarge the bathroom? Or is that a second entrance?


- A bit too many windows, or at least too wide windows. Nice, but maybe impractical.


- Front door possibly too narrow?


- Room 3 could possibly be used well as a master bedroom. Plan it so that a double bed and a large wardrobe fit in!


Otherwise I like it!

Certainly existing spatial imagination as a Dipl.Ing. and experience in the field of floor plans for VIP airplanes (Yes, the sheikh who wants his living, sleeping, and audience rooms in airplanes that normally fly 300 passengers on vacation).

This does not seem to help here, or it is not noticeable. Land buildings do not need such narrow fuselages, and the roof studio – whatever one is supposed to study there – would not reconcile me with it either. Better build a proper two-family plus granny flat house in the overall building plot, then it will turn out better.

How do you get to the door if the car is parked in the carport?

Which, unfortunately, is not a philosophical question.

Used the boring evenings on a business trip and had to resort to an online tool. Let’s see if I find the time for a design in Catia ...

Planning software does not change conceptual defects.

Enjoy passing the boredom and better plan a serious house differently.

Hello everyone,

and first of all, thank you very much for the comments. Without wanting to defend the draft, I would like to address some points – maybe this will lead to a better solution...

1. Cooking / Living / Dining in the basement was my initial favorite. I asked people in my circle of friends for their opinions and almost everyone said it would be strange for a guest to have to go directly down a staircase into the "basement." But maybe I'll reconsider that.

2. The carport area is 3.3m wide. You should be able to pass a normal car there. But it’s not nice, that’s true.

3. The area to the right of the basement hallway is an exit to the garden. The idea is that you don’t have to go through any of the (bedrooms/kids’ rooms) to get to the garden.

4. The hallway on the ground floor is > 1.3m. The front door would be > 1.1m. Is that too small?

5. Room 3 is actually intended as a bedroom if it’s a 4-person household. The south wall of this room therefore has a 70cm distance from window and door to be able to place a complete wardrobe there. That’s why I would also reluctantly take the wardrobe away from this room and give up the shower on the ground floor.

6. More than 2 residential units is certainly not possible. I have already considered the idea of 2 apartments. My problem with that is that the smaller apartment in the basement (probably a 2-room apartment) has an 800m2 garden while the larger apartment upstairs (family apartment) has no garden. My experience is also that a nice garden in a house or semi-detached house is also reflected in the rent. However, for a (small) apartment for singles or couples, it hardly brings any added value to potential tenants. In my mind (and on paper with pencil) I am currently playing with staggered maisonette apartments, so one has more width downstairs, the other upstairs. Both have garden share.

P.S.: The jab at airplane fuselages is, of course, true – everything is narrow and long there... and yet the very rich spend a lot of money on them. But I really can’t resist making a jab at the professional group of management consultants now .

Best regards Holger