Floor plan revision, tips and experiences for improvement?

A visualization could not be provided to us by the construction company, therefore we would be very interested in the [ ]. Just to see roughly how it actually looks.

Just as a side note. I would carefully consider for myself whether these time constraints put too much pressure on me and in the end result in a rather mediocre house that I don’t like. Time and calmness for the individual phases are helpful parameters; anger or stress often come with building anyway. I still see you far from a good design, especially because the plot is not so simple.

On the upper floor, the TV is on the wall facing the parents' bedroom.

Here is my draft. To visualize this completely, I need one more day.



The garage needs to be a bit higher because the street has a slope of 4.3%.

We are very excited and looking forward to the visualization.

Someone advised us to possibly rotate the house by 90 degrees.

That is either complete nonsense or exactly right: it is best to align the house axis parallel to the contour lines of the terrain, not perpendicular to them (because the latter is basically maximally wrong, as this way the height difference would run along the longer side of the house and thus increase, but you ideally want to limit it). If a patio door is thus located on the uphill side of the house one floor above the front door on the downhill side, exactly at the correct terrain height, then this can exceptionally be a clever move. However, the adjacent garden must then follow the terrain. "Visualize" this best using the wire edge model of the terrain shown with accurate heights.

I also find the partial basement interesting, as it would accommodate even more of our wishes. The costs here are probably significantly higher again, I assume? It would lift us higher and on the ground floor we would be level with the terrace. Can anyone estimate what additional costs would arise, since the garage would then drop out and move there.

The post "Partial Basement: The Solution Between Yes and No?" from my series of basement questions (on "Bauen jetzt") deals exactly with the question of a classic partial basement (which I do not consider in discussion here). Your plot has too much slope for a planning approach based on levels with a classic "basement"/"ground floor"/"upper floor/attic" (this only applies where the height difference between uphill/downhill is nearly a full floor, ideally about 2.8 / 3.0 meters). I do not see that here, so you should rather think and speak of "residential basement" and "uphill floor." You automatically have a "partial basement" because only a (uphill) part of the basement is "basement," and the (downhill) part contains living spaces. For a classic partial basement (from the incomplete floor area of the full floor above, but as said, we do not have this here), it would be such that at about 50% size it would have about 70% of the price. A (especially double or even double plus) garage is a large bulky bite and hardly an economically grateful integration candidate. A double garage already fills about 35+ sqm, roughly half of a normal full floor, and also occupies a prime position, so that in the "rest" of the basement it will be difficult to accommodate technical rooms other than in very small "leftover" areas of the floor plan. In other words: integrating the garage is a real killer application against a sensible mixed residential/utility basement. Again: "Forget the intermediate door, the intermediate door is rubbish, I got it from a gum ball machine!" (loosely after Mel Brooks in "Spaceballs"). Let the cars slip into the basket and do not become the floor plan destroyer of the home!

@Philip St Just by the way. I would take a close look for myself whether I am putting too much pressure on myself through this time constraint, and in the end ending up with a rather mediocre house that I don’t like. Time and calm for the individual phases are helpful parameters; annoyance or stress often come with construction anyway. I still see you far from a good design, especially because the site is not that simple.

Absolutely. The >resting period between design phases 2 and 3 is the most important planning phase of all. It is almost even more important than not skipping phase 5.

1. Approve the connection/integration of the garage for completion, i.e., set it to "priority 999";
2. Distribute the room program "terrain-smart" and choose the orientation of the house axis along the contour lines, which here is probably best roughly parallel to the street;
3. I see a children’s granny flat here either in the residential basement or not at all. You will also find two posts from me on the topic of "aging in place."