Floor plan optimization of a single-family house with a basement on a small plot

It will end up being the home office and, with 3 children, the master bedroom downstairs. Neither needs sun, just brightness.

Well, as I already said with [Arbeitszimmer]: better to have the possibility to change the view than just light.

I think I now understood the following thought (?)

Yes, but it was just a thought experiment, probably nonsense.

Overall, the terrain modeling + exterior facilities will probably cost quite a bit. I wouldn’t rely on personal effort there unless you have a garden landscaper, civil engineer, and excavator driver in the family.

We have a landscape architect in the family, but you’re right, we should definitely take that into account from the beginning during the modeling.

Did the expert say how thick the clay layer is and what comes after? Everything sounds very familiar to me. In our case, infiltration was also a problem.

I’m attaching the layer representation (with +10m construction reference point, a manhole cover is assumed on the street). Infiltration looks bad even in deeper layers, as far as I understood from the expert report. RKS1 is southwest, RKS2 northeast.

As roadside greenery, the ditch could have been designated as belonging to the public traffic area, or at least as public green space.

The ditch also runs through an already existing residential area. We looked at it again today, it really looks like an outfall ditch. Wherever it is built over (e.g., entrance to the allotment garden colony), there is a 300mm pipe underneath.

The access path should also be secured in the land register; is there anything about that in the notary contract?

The notary contract is not finished yet, but we will pay attention to that, thanks for the hint.

I would properly fill up a terrace on one side of the house and from there have stairs and a small slide down into the garden, which is then 60-100 cm below street level.

Really good suggestion!

Well, the paths would have to be at street level. Terrace even higher.

That’s how we thought about it now too. Thanks for the great visualization! What program do you actually use?

I think it’s really moving now in the direction of how it can be done optimally and what we really like. Many thanks for your suggestions and ideas!

We also spoke today with two residents living close to the property (northwest and even lower lying) (one with and one without a basement ). Their opinions were very opposite although they are direct neighbors. The ones without a basement said they did without it because of the water. But they also dug deep until reaching load-bearing layers. The ones with a basement have a shaft in the basement where water runs into and is then pumped into the sewage system (basement lies below). They said it works quite well and the pump only switches on during really heavy rainfall. As far as I understood, the basement is made of masonry, then a bitumen layer, then insulation, and then plastered again (I find that kind of strange).

Has the community said anything about drainage? Is a central drainage system being offered? You are sitting on a real clay lump there. I wouldn't underestimate the problem. It is not without reason that clay jars were used in the past to transport liquids. How do the neighbors drain?

No, no central drainage is planned, a cistern is to be built for each plot (1 m3 per sealed 100 m2) with throttled discharge (0.5 l per s) of the collected rainwater into the "wastewater".

The basement, as far as I understand, is built of masonry, then a bitumen layer, then insulation and then plastered again

Almost, it is built of masonry, plastered, then treated with bitumen and then insulated

I also find your suggestions great and that’s how we currently imagine it: to build up in the front (Sorry , I now know that you are a huge advocate of light ) and have everything on one level, then down steps into the ground floor and down stairs to the level at the back as it is...

According to recent calculations with the backfill, my father (the landscape architect ) comes to the conclusion that the frost protection layer of the basement and the strip foundations would be above the current groundwater level, so that probably no water retention for the construction would be necessary...

We also talked again today with two residents in the immediate vicinity of the property (northwest and even lower lying)

Who are you talking about: neighbors in this area who also want to build, or those next door who have already built?