Floor plan of a single-family house 175 m² on a 465 m² plot with basement

We (family with two very small children) are planning to build a house on the outskirts of a large Bavarian city. We are interested in your general feedback :-))

- Soil report all okay
- 170 m2 living space on ground and upper floor, corner plot
- Two separate bathrooms upstairs were desired
- Important - cellar is to remain unfinished for the time being (only the utility room will be built)
- Corner plot
- The "family main entrance" should be the garage (rather no car inside, but all bicycles etc. The garage will then be the "dirty entrance" (2 boys)

Bebauungsplan/Einschränkungen
Plot size - 465 m2
Slope - flat
Floor area ratio - no development plan
Plot ratio - no development plan
Building window, building line and boundary - 5 meters, marked on the site plan
Edge development - garage at the property boundary
Number of parking spaces - 1 maxi-garage
Number of floors - 2 full floors
Roof shape - gable roof
Style - modern

Anforderungen der Bauherren
Style, roof shape, building type - flexible
Cellar, floors - with cellar
Number of persons, ages - 4 persons - 43, 35, 3, 1
Space requirements on ground and upper floors
Office: family use or home office? Twice home office
Guest sleepers per year - grandparents quite regularly
Fireplace - no fireplace
Garage - 1 maxi-garage with passage into the house

House design
Planning by the architect
Preferred heating technology: air heat pump

There are quite a few things missing, site plan (is the property really ending just about a meter past the terrace?), dimensions of the floor plan, the living room and kitchen do not look very suitable.

With the idea of the basement, that would ultimately be 4 bathrooms. The downstairs is supposed to be a guest area.

I consider the side entrance through the pantry and then the kitchen to be unsuitable. You would need a second coat rack there.

How many parking spaces are required? And does the development plan really allow a house with a ridge height of over 10 m?

And, what is the budget supposed to be?

I find the floor plan very unpolished. Five bathrooms? And the entrance through the pantry? And always having to open the garage? And the cloakroom is at the other end of the house? That is not a dirt lock, but a dirt collector. And the living room so carelessly squeezed as a sofa set in a corner in the passage area next to the dining table?

The basement is supposed to remain unfinished for now (only the utility room will be built) [...] The "family main entrance" is supposed to be the garage (rather no car inside, but only all the bicycles etc. The garage is then the "dirt sluice" (2 boys)

That sounds like twice too much money - will you give me one?

I have to be honest: at first, the entrance area with the built-in wardrobe and the bench or dresser opposite (whether a window seat or not) appealed to me. Then I think of the beautiful sightline it could have been if there were also a nice window opposite the front door, allowing a view of the garden. And then I read this here:

The family main entrance is supposed to be the garage (rather no car inside, but all the bicycles, etc.). The garage then becomes the "dirt sluice" (2 boys)

How is that supposed to work? Everyone into the garage (the garage door is not an elegant front door, especially not for school children), then quickly into the pantry/storage room. Shoes and jackets off there, one child refuses, runs through the kitchen and makes everything dirty, the other child messes their pants on the long way to the toilet. But we don’t want to blame everything on the kids: what about you? There is a good reason why a coatroom and toilet are located right in the entrance area. Short routes, where they are needed. And the next morning the clothes are put on again in the pantry? Or gathered from the pantry and the stuff in the official coatroom?

You could really plan a side entrance nicely, for example you could halve the storage space here, and instead have a guest toilet on the outer wall and a direct access to the enlarged cloakroom to the garage. And when I write something like this spontaneously, I wonder where the planning effort has gone that presumably earned some thousands with it.

But now to the rest: the living area is not suitable for chilling, not for watching TV, because it is a thoroughfare for the "dirt sluice" and kitchen. You have to like a basement staircase in the living area. I wonder about all the bands of windows that prevent you from looking into the garden. Bands of windows should serve as an accent, a small variation within a homogeneous facade, or to direct the view from outside when the sidewalk runs too close to the house, or as here in the bathroom on the upper floor. Here you are likely reminded of basement atmosphere on the outer walls. Such a window band would, for example, also be more suitable for the cloakroom area than a window seat that allows views into the house. And why are sliding doors drawn in the upper floor facing south?

And then something important that many ignore, if they even know it: every toilet is ventilated through the roof. This also applies to the toilets in the basement. That is why residents often like to plan the toilets in the house at the same place so they don’t have too many roof penetrations, which in turn are prone to construction defects. But the architect is supposed to explain to you where his advice went. Overall, the site plan and the dimensions are missing here. When building under § 34 of the Building Code, a screenshot of the surroundings is missing.

How many parking spaces are required?

That might be stated in a municipal ordinance. The architect should know that.

And does the development plan really allow a house with a ridge height over 10 m?

There is no development plan. How high have buildings in the area been? The architect should know that, too.

And, what is the budget supposed to be?

I am wondering that as well. In my opinion, the architect implemented the client’s wishes.