Floor plan of a single-family house with a basement, 2 stories, double garage approximately 290 sqm + net floor area

Hello everyone,

We have finally received a floor plan from our architect and would like to share it with you for feedback.
Attached is the questionnaire and many thanks in advance for your feedback.

Development plan/restrictions: Paragraph 34, like neighboring development
Size of the plot: 709 sqm (currently built with an old structure (2 stories, approx. 155m2 with basement and garage). Demolition unavoidable
Slope: none
Floor area ratio n.a.
Floor space index n.a.
Building window, building line and boundary: 3 m
Edge development
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 2
Roof form: gable roof
Style: modern house in classic Palatine style (beaver tail roof tiles, sandstone elements, shutters)
Orientation: south
Maximum heights/limits: approx. 10 m
Further requirements

Client requirements: The fantastic view of the vineyards (north) should be considered in the floor plan.
Style, roof shape, building type: Since our plot is in a wine village, we would like a new building with classic Palatine style elements, without appearing kitschy or old-fashioned.
Basement, floors (full or partial basement, 2 full floors plus attic)
Number of people, age: 5 (41, 40, and 3 children (13, 9, 9))
Space requirements on ground floor and upper floor: large living and dining area on the ground floor (space for a piano), bathroom and office/bedroom on the ground floor for aging/possible care dependency of relatives,
1st floor: parents’ area including dressing room and bathroom, husband's home office, guest and TV room,
2nd floor: children’s area with 3 bedrooms and children’s bathroom
Office: family use or home office: 2 home offices
Overnight guests per year: 20
Open or closed architecture: open
Conservative or modern construction: mix
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open with kitchen island
Number of dining seats: 12
Fireplace: yes, Swedish round tile stove. However, it cannot be placed directly next to the piano, so we are still looking for an alternative location.
Music/stereo wall: no, TV room on 1st floor (guest room)
Balcony, roof terrace: roof terrace on double garage with views of the vineyards
Garage, carport: double garage
Utility garden, greenhouse:
Further wishes/particularities/daily routine, also reasons why this or that should or should not be

House design
Who is the designer: architect
What do you like particularly? Why? Separate parents’ and children’s areas, roof terrace with a wonderful view of the vineyards also from the home office, separate TV room, open kitchen with spacious living and dining area
What do you not like? Why? Location of the stove, as it is directly next to the piano
Price estimate according to architect/planner: initial estimate approx. 850k
Personal price limit for the house, including equipment: 900k
Preferred heating technology: doesn’t matter

[If you have to do without, which details/expansions: full basement (this is a price question, as the current house has a basement and must be demolished. A partial basement is planned and depending on the cost for backfilling, a full basement is also possible. Basement still needs to be planned and will have at least technical and storage rooms, possibly workshop/hobby room
- Can you do without: large master bedroom,
- Cannot do without: children’s floor with children’s bathroom, roof terrace, large dressing room,
Why is the design as it is now? Many talks with the architect, it is important to us that the house does not look like a run-of-the-mill box from the outside. Therefore, it should not be a box but somewhat playful. More expensive, but budgeted. Exterior views are currently in development and will be submitted later.
Which wishes/design elements were implemented by the architect? Separate parents’ and children’s areas, spacious living, cooking and dining area, roof terrace, access from the garage, separate TV/guest room, 2 home offices

What do you consider particularly good or bad about it?
Great: separate areas, parents’ bathroom and dressing room.
Needs improvement: location of piano and stove,

What is the most important/fundamental question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?
Where will the stove be placed? Children’s bathroom with separate toilet to ease the morning rush of the 3 schoolchildren? Kitchen island or U-shaped kitchen (as in the design)?

Enjoy looking it over and many thanks for your help.

So I find it coherent. What I like less is the L-shape of the two southern children's rooms. But with the room size, it's probably forgivable. Open space: if you don't like the piano and stove position. Where would you prefer them? I would simply swap the sofa and piano to make the sofa corner cozier. Or do you just not like the floor plan in that spot?

Thank you very much for the feedback. We would like to place the piano in the "dunkle Ecke" and the sofa then facing the window. Due to the garage, it is otherwise quite dark in the back corner. Do you have an alternative idea for the L shape?

What are the kitchen measurements? The line spacing seems too tight to me. Is it hidden by simply omitting the countertop between the cooktop and the sink... Likewise, the cabinet spacing in the dressing room seems a bit tight.

Which corresponding/wish was implemented by the architect? Completed parents and children area, spacious living, cooking and dining area, roof terrace, access from the garage, separate TV/guest room, 2 home offices

That's exactly what I feared: that all the question marks in my view are not just unfortunate coincidences, but precisely go back to wishes implemented by the architects. Try it once without all these wishes, just with the pure room program. I would be, in short, "not surprised" if a more convincing design emerged from that.

We would like to place the piano in the "dark corner" and then the sofa facing the window.

According to the windows in the drawings, these are all dark corners ;-) But otherwise, I also cannot understand where the house got this basic (floor) shape from. I would rather put the guest on the ground floor and prefer to have the workrooms with my wife on the same level. Was there a starting model (I suspect with one floor – the upper floor – less)? The upper floor seems to me to reflect a design technique error (which typically doesn't happen to professionals), not to develop the upper floor first – its inefficient size and layout practically compel this suspicion.

Exterior views are currently being developed and will be provided later.

For us to follow the cross-shaped house design, it would also be helpful to understand the how and why of the building volume.

The basement still has to be planned and will at least have technical and storage rooms, possibly a workshop/hobby room.

Also that, design technique error number two: planning concrete stories before the room program and building volume are defined and "divided" (i.e., design before preliminary design). Ouch. That strengthens my suspicion that a one-and-a-half-story stock design was taken and an parents' suite floor was inserted.

Since the current house has a basement and has to be demolished. A partial basement is planned and depending on the costs for the fill, a full basement is also an option.

Would you like to explain in more detail what kind of property this is and under what circumstances it owes the diagnosis of the unavoidable deep demolition?
By the way, I recommend entering "´Teilkeller´ / from: ´11ant´" in the forum search ;-)

Almost 300m² and then a staircase like that? Sorry, but I don't have to understand...