Floor plan of a 200 m² gable roof house on 780 m²

Hello! We are currently in the third iteration of the plan for our little house together with an architect. The two pictures below are based 90% on the architect's proposals for the ground floor; I have currently designed the upper floor myself. The orientation on the plot is fixed, meaning we have evening sun from the left side of the plan. Currently, we have the terrace facing south, which is unbearable in summer, so we have placed the outdoor seating area towards the northeast. That doesn’t bother us, radiant heaters are planned anyway. The garage must also remain on the left side of the plan, as all utility connections are here. The house will have an asymmetrical gable roof with a 35° pitch towards the street (southwest, because of photovoltaics), 25° towards the garden, with the ridge running parallel to the street. This results in almost no knee wall on the garden side, about 1.80 m towards the street.

But first here are the parameters:

Development plan/restrictions
Plot size: 780 m²
Slope: no
Floor area ratio: 0.4
Gross floor area ratio: 0.8
Building slot, building line and boundary: 5.5 meters (especially in front of the garage, but still too little in the plan) from the street, 3 meters on the right side of the plan
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 2
Roof type: gable roof, roof pitch 25-35°
Style: modern
Orientation: Entrance 31° southwest
Maximum heights/limits: two full floors
Further requirements: none

Client requirements
Style, roof type, building type: modern
Basement, floors: no basement, slightly less than two full floors
Number of people, age: 1x 38, 1x 31, 1x dog, possibly 1x child
Room requirements on ground floor, upper floor: based on individual rooms, approx. 200 m² total
Office: office for two people needed
Guest overnight stays per year: 2-3
Open or closed architecture: rather closed, kitchen should be separable, possibly sliding door
Conservative or modern construction: modern
Open kitchen, kitchen island: "semi-open", kitchen island in U-shape
Number of dining seats: 8 in the dining area, three in the kitchen
Fireplace: at least prepped for
Music/stereo wall: yes
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: garage on the left side of the plan, carport on the right side
Utility garden, greenhouse: maybe, garden is big enough
Further wishes/special features/daily routine, also reasons why this or that should not be: access from the garage into the house

House design
Who is responsible for the planning? Architect + own modifications
What do you particularly like? Why? Entrance area, access possibility through garage (mudroom for the dog), lots of glass in the living room, covered outdoor seating area
What do you not like? Why? Upper floor, rooms possibly too tight, guest WC on the ground floor actually too large, due to recessed front door
Cost estimate according to architect/planner: €700,000 excluding land, which we already own
Personal price limit for the house, including equipment: €700,000
Preferred heating technology: heat pump + photovoltaics

If you have to do without, which details/extensions
-you can do without: area in the living room, area in the bedroom, possibly a children’s room (we only want one child anyway, but things happen...)
-you cannot do without: pantry

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

Here are the pictures

Is this a coherent plan? :)

Mmh, not really. Maybe you should show the architect's drafts completely. For your upper floor, I would already ask where the kids' toilet drains to? Through the living room? I also don't like the arrangement of the rooms with these slanted door meetings.
The start of the staircase on the ground floor is also kind of annoying, isn't it? You're just busy dodging or jumping over it. Is there a cupboard in front of the utility room entrance? Planning a cupboard door here would seem very strange to me. It is one of the most frequently used doors. You want something proper with a handle and speed. No soft close or any gimmicks.
The recess in the entrance area is also more than unfortunately chosen if it creates this useless niche in the guest toilet.

Site plan on the property is missing.
Even if you don’t want a sun terrace now, that doesn’t mean you have to exclude it completely. Orientation to the east is pretty much the darkest you can do. With that mega garage in the west, it would be too dark for me.

Maybe you could still show the drafts from the architect completely.

That doesn't help in this case, since the latest plans differ extremely, the kitchen is somewhere else and much too small, we have already changed that and I am waiting for the plans. I just "prematurely" drew something myself.

For your upper floor, I would immediately ask where the children's toilet drains to? Through the living room? I also don't find the arrangement of the rooms with these slanting door meetings very appealing.

Good point, I don't really like that either, but I can't think of anything smarter if the small bathroom is to remain. You could still push it all the way down over the technical room, but then I would have a child’s room directly next to the bedroom, which I actually wanted to avoid.

Is there a cupboard in front of the utility room access?

Yes, it should be a "secret" entrance, similar to the hidden entrances in pantry rooms. The longer I look at it, the more I think I would constantly try to hang jackets in there. We'll see.

The setback in the entrance area is also more than unfortunately chosen if it creates this useless niche in the guest toilet.

That's true, the setback is currently 75 cm, but I actually like it quite a bit. Maybe the wall will just be made thicker and the niche will go away.

Site plan on the plot is missing.

Attached below.

Even if you don’t want a sun terrace now, that doesn’t mean you have to exclude it entirely. Orientation towards the east is about as dark as it gets. With this mega garage in the west, it would be too dark for me.

There will also be a terrace in front of the living room, but I quite like the covered outdoor seating in front of the kitchen. We currently live in absolute close proximity, so the sun situation there is well known. You can neither withstand it visually (glare) nor thermally for a long time. The sun really shines there until it sets. However, I hope to get some light at the seating area through the glass surfaces in the living room.

There is not a single architect in sight / at work anywhere near here. The staircase is always in the way. And overall, the house is a darkroom.

It used to be said, "Anyone can plan big," but even that has to be questioned here.

Forgive me, but if the plan comes from an architect, then he should be banned from the profession.
Any discussion about this "work" is unnecessary...

Phew. Clear opinions. Anyway, give me a few points to understand what is so bad about the ground floor? As I said, I painted the upper floor myself, so you can't blame the architect for that. I pulled the staircase out a bit to have more space on the upper floor; with him it was almost flush with the wall and didn’t protrude that much.

More windows on the ground floor are really difficult because there is a garage on the right side of the plan and next to it a two-and-a-half-story building. On the left side of the plan there is also a garage on the boundary, directly adjacent to that towards the garden is a neighbor’s terrace. Someone is always looking in from the side. Only in front and back is there nothing.

In the architect’s first draft the garage was also not so long towards the garden; there was still a side window there.