Floor plan optimization for a semi-detached house of 150-160m² on a 360m² plot in a new development area

I don't really like that... I need to take a closer look later. You don't have much freedom anyway... still: What you can manage to do would be to properly refurbish the fronts. Do you want to have such conservative views? Apart from the fact that almost every window is different... I counted 10! formats. With the "sub-windows" in addition to the double-winged ones, it looks awful. You can smooth that out a bit if you carefully consider each window. Some confusing ideas can be ironed out there.

Have we already talked about daylight spots? - see :

Thanks for the mention

In the meantime, we had the opportunity to experience the Velux daylight spots live. Our builder was just working on a house in which the daylight spots had already been installed. It was an L-shaped hallway and a total of 3 spots were installed (2 on the long side and 1 on the short side).

For us, that fit very well and also confirmed our choice. Inside, it looks roughly like a larger round lamp and provides a super bright daylight. The light itself is also well distributed. If you have no opportunity to install windows or skylights, like us, then I think the spots are a good alternative.

We also researched online and found there are two major providers: VELUX and Solatube. According to reports, Solatube is supposed to be slightly brighter due to the slightly different construction. There are also occasional reports of condensation problems with the VELUX spots, which then had to be replaced.

Unfortunately, the window manufacturer our builder works with only offers VELUX, so it will probably be VELUX.

I think something walkable on both sides is for wider rooms.

That was not what I was getting at, I gave you the reading tip because of the posts about construction, stability, appearance, etcetera. How many sides you can go around the thing seems to me just a minor point. From my "engineer's perspective," this is simply the most current and diverse room divider thread.

The light shaft would have to be routed somewhere and surely has a diameter >10cm?

Here too, I was pleased to recall a thread specifically discussing two (although similar) of them. Basically, the submarine periscope and the kaleidoscope apparently served as inspiration for the idea of building a kind of light-collecting downpipe. It doesn't bother anything in the attic.

I don't like that so much... I have to take a closer look later. You don't really have much freedom... nevertheless: what you could make possible would be to properly polish the facades. Do you want to have such conservative views? Aside from the fact that almost every window is different... I counted 10! formats. With the "sub-windows" in addition to the double casement ones, it looks awful. You can also somewhat ease that if you consider each window carefully. Some chaotic ideas can be smoothed out.

I'm curious... But we have actually already put quite a bit of thought into the windows. In fact, the widths of the windows stacked on top of each other and the heights of the windows next to each other at the front are each the same.

But we have actually already thought quite a lot about the windows.

I would also coordinate the double casement window of Child 2 on the center axis with the bedroom window. Although all other windows could theoretically also be wished for to be more optimal, in practice it remains a semi-detached house (practically a duplex), but only as wide as a mid-terrace house. Therefore, compromises on perfection are unavoidable already in the floor plan – which inevitably affects the facades at these dimensions. At least: compromises are not losses *SCNR*

Would daylight spots actually be a solution to get from the roof up to the upper floor? The light shaft would have to be routed somewhere and surely has a diameter >10cm?

The tubes from Velux come in two versions and have a diameter of 25cm or 35cm. Depending on how much light you want. I don’t see a problem lighting the hallway in the attic, since you can come directly from the roof there.

It gets a bit more difficult on the upper floor. You could install a shaft in the storage room in the attic and the storage room on the upper floor and lead the tubes down there and then let them come out at an angle on the ceiling. There are also extensions for that. On the Solatube website, there is a diagram about this directly on the homepage.

The question is how important daylight in the hallway is to you. On the upper floor you could go through the ceiling and then directly across, so hardly any space would be lost or only at the ceiling. In the attic you have two large storage areas on the left and right anyway, which only have a height of 1m. Honestly, I’d care less about those few centimeters and more about the daylight.

You should get advice on this.