Floor plan house with granny flat - improvement suggestions?

Hello everyone,

we want to build a house with 2 residential units on a 472m2 plot (Unit 1: 143.39 m2 / Unit 2: 69.57 m2). The 2nd residential unit is intended for my parents and the main residential unit for my family with a husband and 3 children (7/13/17 years old). Since our plot is relatively small, we want to build a compact house so that we have as much garden space as possible. We are currently in the final planning phase and would like to get feedback from you on our building project. We have the uncertain feeling that we might have forgotten something essential or not paid enough attention to it because we focused more on the compactness of the house in the planning.

Development plan/restrictions
Plot size: 472m2
Slope: no
Plot ratio: 0.4
Floor area ratio: 0.6
Building window, building line and boundary
Edge development: south and east
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 2
Roof type: hip roof
Style:
Orientation: south/west
Maximum heights/limits: 10m
Other requirements

Requirements of the builders
Style, roof type, building type: city villa
Basement, floors: no
Number of people, age: 1st unit 5 (43, 38, 17, 13, 7). 2nd unit (both over 60)
Room requirements on ground floor, upper floor:
Office: family use or home office? -
Guests per year: 2-3 times a year
Open or closed architecture: open
Conservative or modern construction: modern
Open kitchen, cooking island; open kitchen, no cooking island
Number of dining seats: 5
Fireplace: no
Music/stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: garage
Utility garden, greenhouse: no
Other wishes/special features/daily routine, also reasons why this or that should or should not be

The house should be compact but still appear spacious.

House design
Who designed it:
- Planner from a construction company
- Architect: From the architect
- Do-it-yourself
What do you particularly like? Why? It is a relatively small house with 2 residential units.
What do you not like? Why? Maybe the rooms (children’s rooms and the rooms in the granny flat) are too small?
Price estimate according to architect/planner: approx. 600,000€
Personal price limit for the house, including equipment: 650,000€
Preferred heating technology: district heating

If you had to give up, on which details/extensions
- could you give up: Actually nothing – we have already reduced everything to the minimum.
- could you not give up: The number of planned rooms

Why is the design the way it is now? For example,
Standard design from the planner?
Which wishes were implemented by the architect? Yes

A mix of many examples from various magazines...
What makes it particularly good or bad in your opinion?

What is the most important/fundamental question regarding the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?

We wanted the house to be as compact as possible. Maybe we placed too much emphasis on compactness and neglected other essential things.
What do you like about the house, what not so much, and what is absolutely unacceptable?

Quickly: the 2 staircases seem to me to be one too many. In my opinion, the secondary apartment must be limited to the ground floor. What is the space requirement here? Are 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms really needed? Also: Is it wise to have the terraces directly next to each other? Does the driveway have to be where it is now? Garage in the northwest presumably not allowed?

Are the parking spaces sufficient for 2 residential units?

I agree with Kaja, the 2nd staircase is somehow too much.

Please draw a proper table with a movement area in each residential unit.

I would put the parents' unit on one level, and move your living room to the 1st floor, possibly with a small balcony.
I could imagine two common rooms being quite charming with teenagers or young adults.
Possibly 1 or 2 children's rooms under the roof.

The granny flat isn't particularly barrier-free. You and the parents need to think about how things should look in the future.

Quickly: the 2 staircases seem to me to be one too many. The granny flat must, in my opinion, be limited to the ground floor. What are the space requirements here? Are 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms really needed? Also: Is it wise to have the terraces directly next to each other? Does the driveway have to be where it is now? Garage in the northwest probably not allowed?

My parents will mostly stay on the ground floor. The staircase and the room on the upper floor in the granny flat are planned as a guest room because my parents receive visits quite often.

Our terrace will be on the west; the architect only drew the terraces next to each other because of the building application (he wanted to make it easy for himself).

Garage in the northwest; very good thought: unfortunately, this is not possible because the driveway to the play street is here. We would also have preferred the garage in the northwest, then we would have had more space for the garden in the south and east.

Are the parking spaces sufficient for 2 residential units?

I agree with Kaja, the 2nd staircase is somehow too much.

Please draw a proper table with clearance space in each residential unit.

I would put the parents' residential unit on one level, and the living room of your residential unit on the 1st floor, possibly with a small balcony.
I can imagine two common rooms being quite charming with teenagers or young adults.
Possibly 1 or 2 children's rooms under the roof.

The granny flat is not particularly accessible. The parents and you need to think about what it should look like in the future.

2 parking spaces will probably not be sufficient. However, we can park additional cars at the house on the north side. The architect did not include these because the building authority might otherwise have objections.

We deliberately planned the living room of our residential unit on the ground floor because we want to spend a lot of time in the garden with the children in the summer. Otherwise, we would constantly have to go upstairs to the 1st floor to carry things down and back up again. That could become very annoying in the long run.

My parents will mostly stay on the ground floor. The stairs and the room on the upper floor in the granny flat are planned as a guest room, as my parents often have visitors.

And do the visitors need their own bathroom? That is too much for a granny flat!

Our terrace will be on the west side, the terraces next to each other were only drawn by the architect because of the building application (he wanted to make it easy for himself).

2 parking spaces will probably not be enough. However, we can park more cars at the house to the north. The architect did not include these because the building authority might otherwise have objections.

I think it would be better if the architect drew everything exactly as it will be in the end. I wouldn’t start with such fiddling — that always goes wrong.