Floor plan - In search of tips and ideas from experts

2023-10-13 18:47:46

Development Plan/Restrictions

Size of the property	1700 m²
Slope	yes, but only garden part
Floor area ratio	160 m² (see plan)
Floor space index	see plan
Building window, building line and boundary	see plan
Edge development	see plan
Number of parking spaces in courtyard	2
Number of storeys	Basement, ground floor, upper floor
Roof shape	Gable roof
Architectural style
Orientation
Maximum heights/limits max. ridge height	not known

Client Requirements

Architectural style, roof shape, building type	Single-family house
Basement, storeys	Basement yes, ground floor, upper floor
Number of people, age	2 adults (32+33), presumably 2 children
Office: family use or home office?	Home office
Space requirements on ground floor, upper floor	Living area + kitchen, guest WC, storage room, office, bedroom, dressing room, 2x children’s rooms, bathroom
Overnight guests per year	max. 1
Open or closed architecture	Living area open, rest rather closed
Conservative or modern construction	basically balanced, but rather modern
Number of dining places	6-8
Fireplace	yes
Music/stereo wall	No
Balcony, roof terrace	No
Garage, carport	Garage
Utility garden, greenhouse	Garden
Special	We would like to enlarge the office a bit so that we can later use it as a bedroom if we want to live on one level as parents

House Design

Who is responsible for the planning	Architect
What do you like especially? Why?	The plot itself is super idyllic and the terrace/living-dining area is oriented towards nature.
What do you not like? Why?	Office possibly too small. Unsure if living-dining area is too small. (maybe some improvements can be made through clever optimizations) We are still uncertain about the kitchen planning, which kitchen fits best here and how much space will be needed. Staircase too large Basement not yet discussed, but basically planned without outside entrance -> we find that essential -> we would like opinions from the forum here
Cost estimate according to architect/planner	~ 3000 € per m² living space
Personal price limit for the house, including equipment	No limit, but it would be nice if we could manage with 600,000
Preferred heating technology	Heat pump

If you have to do without, which details/extensions
-can you do without: honestly, we don’t want to do without anything
-can’t do without: see above

Why did the design turn out as it is now? E.g.
Standard design from the planner? More or less plus minor changes by us
Which wishes were implemented by the architect? Partially

What makes it particularly good or bad in your eyes? see 130 character summary
no information

What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?

Basically our requirements have been implemented, as described above we are unsure whether the living and dining rooms as well as the office could use a few more sqm, preferably through sensible replanning. We would like the staircase narrower.
We basically like the upper floor quite well. The basement has not been planned exactly yet, but here the question arises whether an outside entrance would be useful.
Otherwise, we are very grateful for any ideas and input, as we are quite inexperienced and the experts here have already contributed some great ideas.

2023-10-13 19:41:49

The office would be rather small even without a sleeping facility. Depending on the frequency of home office, I would definitely enlarge it. Two workstations needed?

Bedroom as a passage to the dressing room could disturb those who could still be sleeping. Access to the bedroom through the dressing room desired?

2023-10-13 21:31:11

Some things are quite nicely solved. Nevertheless, I cannot come to terms with it. Entrance is in the east? The kitchen, as drawn, just doesn’t work at all. Absolutely terrible. There is no working triangle, instead deficits and unplanned areas. A pantry, which is clumsily inserted, disrupts the whole nice space, with which you could actually do something as a kitchen. The hallway would be too dark for me, the reception not inviting. You cannot just narrow the stairs like that without making them longer, because the missing steps have to go somewhere. Possibly a normal two-flight winding staircase would be an alternative? Office/guest room now has the size of your dressing room. The room would have to be at least twice as large to maintain your standard later. The guest WC does not meet the standard for a permanently used bathroom – not for old age either. Save yourselves the idea of leaving everything upstairs deserted in old age, because then you would also have to mothball the basement. One does not do that to oneself or the house, but sells it. Build for the next 20 years and that’s fine…. If you stay fit for another 20 years, that’s normal and then also okay if you take the children's rooms back for yourself or the grandchildren. For the above reasons, I also would not plan the bedroom as a walk-through room. With the plot size, I would not build a complicated or impractical basement. Ultimately, it goes against the idea of building the house for “now and old age.” Otherwise, the planning is feasible, but rather somewhat boring.

2023-10-13 22:28:21

Floor area ratio and plot ratio mean something different, namely the building density of the property. Basically, you have not reported any of the information from the usage template of the development plan here. Designating the office as a bedroom for the elderly is a popular naive nonsense. The staircase burdens the entire design; its step rhythm is, in my opinion, only bearable for unmusical people. This faulty construction would have been scrapped by me already in the preliminary design phase. I would swap the positions of the throne and the shower. "Slope, but only garden part" is an imprecise description for sensible suggestions. I do not follow the idea of providing a basement here. Nowadays, I would no longer install a fireplace. The load-bearing walls are in an unfavorable position.

2023-10-14 08:35:03

The office would be rather small even without a sleeping option. Depending on the frequency of working from home, I would definitely enlarge it. Need 2 workspaces? The bedroom as a passage to the dressing room could disturb someone who might still be sleeping. Is accessibility to the bedroom through the dressing room desired?

Wow, first of all, thanks for all your input, really great how quickly we are getting feedback here. Maybe I have to say that we are still at the beginning of the planning and have more or less only created the third floor plan with few changes compared to the original, and in the process the staircase—which we don't really want either—was included; we definitely want to change that.

It is also important to say that our terrace currently faces towards a peaceful area and a small forest with wildlife crossings, hence the west-facing orientation. I will definitely be working from home more often in the future, which is why we are aiming for 10 m². Our idea is now as follows: We will extend the side between the office and the garage by so much (according to my amateur calculation, 0.5 m should be enough) so that the 2 m² come out, then we should actually also be able to separate the pantry from the kitchen as well, because that is about 2 m² too. What do you think about that?

We will reconsider the dressing room more carefully then.

2023-10-14 09:16:30

Some things are quite nicely solved. Still, I can't come to terms with it.
Entrance in the east?
The kitchen, as drawn, simply doesn’t work at all. Really, really bad. There is no working triangle, instead deficits and unused areas. A pantry that is clumsily inserted spoils the whole beautiful space, with which you could actually do something as a kitchen.
The hallway would be too dark for me, the reception not inviting.
You can’t just narrow the stairs like that without making them longer, because the missing steps have to go somewhere. Perhaps a normal 2-flight winding staircase would be an alternative?
Office/guest room now has the size of your dressing room. The room would have to be at least twice as large to maintain your later standard. Guest WC has no standard for a permanently used bathroom – not for old age either.
Save yourself the idea of leaving everything upstairs to become deserted in old age, because then you would also have to mothball the basement. You don’t do that to yourself or the house, but rather sell it. Build for the next 20 years and that’s fine… If you stay fit for another 20 years, that’s normal and then okay, when you take the children’s rooms back for yourself or the grandchildren.

For the reasons mentioned above, I would also not plan the bedroom as a walk-through room.

With the plot size, I wouldn’t build a complicated or impractical basement. Ultimately, it contradicts the idea of building the house for “now and old age.”

Otherwise, the planning is feasible, but rather a bit boring.

Thanks also for your input, many interesting thought experiments.
To explain, the entrance in the east is due to the fact that on this side the access runs via a narrow private path; what do you think speaks against the entrance in the east? The neighbor, for example, has it solved that way.
For the kitchen, we are planning an appointment with the kitchen planner soon; after that, I will upload the floor plan again, as much will still change.

How would you design the hallway differently, do you have any ideas for us?
We definitely want a different staircase, preferably quite narrow and so that some light floods in towards the corridor, what do you think?
We have more or less given up the idea that we can go downstairs when we are older.
One idea would also be to move the office completely to the basement, the ground floor bathroom where the office is, and then make the living room a bit bigger. I just don’t know to what extent an office in the basement is advisable. Do you have an opinion on that?

Well, we would use the basement: technical room, additional pantry, football room, etc.

With our plot, the space is really the actual highlight, but if you have ideas to beat the boredom, we would be happy to hear some tips from you ;) Thanks for the input!

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Floor plan - In search of tips and ideas from experts

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