Floor plan single-family house 147m2 - opinions, criticism, suggestions for improvement?

Hello dear home builders,

we have been working on the planning of our single-family house for a while now and, at least we think so, have found a pretty good solution for us. The civil engineer/architect of our general contractor has merely implemented everything according to our ideas and wishes and hardly supported us with own ideas or suggestions for improvements. Therefore, as laypeople, it is difficult for us to assess whether we have really achieved the optimum here. Now we would like to draw on your experiences and expertise and are curious about your honest opinion and possible suggestions for improvement.

Development plan/restrictions
Size of the plot: 327 m2
Slope: no
Floor area ratio: no (§34 orientation to neighboring buildings)
Building window, building line and boundary: The current design fully utilizes the building window (except for the terrace area) à 10.15m*8.9 m
Number of parking spaces: 1
Number of floors: 1.5 (knee wall height 1.5m) + basement
Roof shape: gable roof 40-45° (currently planned with 40°), a hipped roof would have been nice but probably not possible due to the nature of the neighboring buildings
Style: no particular preference. Should be visually appealing. Rather modern.
Orientation: terrace faces west
Maximum heights/limits: eaves height 4.85 m, ridge height 8.57 m (these are the details from a preliminary building permit. In the current design it is 14 and 18 cm more)
Further requirements: heat pump + possibly central ventilation system

Client requirements
Style: somewhat modern/appealing
Roof shape: gable roof (hipped roof is unfortunately probably not possible. Of course, one could submit the building application with a hipped roof on a whim, but that is too risky for us. In the end, you lose a lot of time)
Building type: single-family house

Basement: yes
Floors: 3 or rather 2.5
Number of persons, age: 2 small children + 2 adults
Space requirements on ground floor, upper floor: normal space requirement – 2 children's rooms + bedroom + office
Office: family use or home office?: office is an absolute must (a lot of home office for 2 people)
Overnight guests per year: few and rare (can be accommodated in the office if necessary)
Open or closed architecture: open living/dining area with kitchen. Kitchen should preferably not be too visible.
Conservative or modern construction: as long as it is functional, happy with both
Open kitchen, cooking island: yes, both
Number of dining seats: mostly 4, option to expand to 8-10 persons
Fireplace: no
Music/stereo wall: possibly a living wall planned
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: carport + bicycle/tool shed planned on the back, but we are not quite sure about the placement yet. Open to ideas here.
Further wishes/special features/daily routine, also reasons why this or that should or should not be:

House design
Who is responsible for the planning:
-Architect/civil engineer of our general contractor.
Heating technology: heat pump and possibly a central ventilation system (still to be decided. What is your opinion on this?), conduit for later retrofitting of a photovoltaic system is planned
What do you particularly like? Why?

[*]Good shape and layout of the rooms. Easy to furnish.

What do you not like? Why?

[*]External dimensions of the house are unfortunately not flexible because otherwise the distances cannot be maintained. It could at most become longer, which would be at the expense of the garden.
[*]Kitchen and dining area could be a bit bigger. However, this would probably only be possible to the detriment of the cloakroom and guest toilet. The guest toilet could probably be made 25 cm narrower if the position of the toilet and washbasin were swapped.
[*]No natural light in the stairwell or hallway area. Possibly an additional window?
[*]Could a different stair construction possibly gain even more space? Probably this would lead to substantial changes in the floor plan.
[*]Cloakroom possibly very small. We also simply lack the imagination of how this will look later. The currently planned pipe routing for waste and air in the cloakroom naturally eats up even more space. Perhaps swapping cloakroom and guest toilet might bring advantages?
[*]The architect is planning very large windows in places. In the office, for example, there is a 1.76 m wide window. We ask ourselves whether this is necessary. After all, you only look onto the driveway and the neighboring house. What is your opinion on window sizes?
[*]Shower with two massive side walls could be quite dark, right? Currently, the daylight only comes from the front. How about the width of the shower? What did you choose?
[*]Carport location is not ideal. You would probably have to back up the 15m long driveway. Maybe better to place it on the south side and keep the bicycle shed at the current position?
[*]Room layout and window positions in the basement. Would you leave it like that?

What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?
We are interested in your opinion about the floor plan. What is good? What is not so good and should be changed? What has proven itself for you?

We appreciate every little hint and suggestion for improvement.
Many thanks in advance and best regards!

I think that the bedroom and bathroom upstairs waste too much space and I would rather set up a small laundry/utility room. However, I would also reconsider the bathroom layout, as the shower is inconveniently placed there. But others have to take care of that...

Oh dear, that looks quite lackluster to me. A dwarf kitchen squeezed into the tiny corner is not exactly a dream. The dark hallway upstairs is also very bleak. I would just crumple it up and file it under "P". Unfortunately, I don’t understand the garage arrangement. In the views, it is in the north, if I interpret that correctly. On the site plan, the parking space is shown in the south. I’ll simply assume you have a choice and am also in favor of the north. Accordingly, here is a quick sketch with a standard design for (approx.) 9x10 + basement (bottom of plan is east): [ATTACH alt="EG.jpg" type="full"]73181[/ATTACH] [ATTACH alt="OG.jpg" type="full"]73179[/ATTACH] Dormers for the kids you have to imagine. What I also wanted to say - I find the wall thickness strange. 32 cm exterior walls - what is that? Timber frame? Do they meet the energy saving regulation? I have taken them over for now, but the standard today is already 50 cm walls. Of course, it depends on the material.

Great idea to widen the stairs. And otherwise, a good suggestion!

Already hinted at: You will not be happy with this kitchen! Even the amount of utensils that need to be stored contradicts the space available. And in general, the number of hours of use is not reflected in the granted area. In my opinion, the kitchen is the hub and focal point. Not just technically. This is where cooking happens, school sandwiches are prepared, relaxation teas are made, birthdays are planned.... This MUST NOT be only 7 cramped square meters. And the hallway is simply a very(!) dark structure that constantly requires artificial light.

Great idea to widen the stairs. And otherwise a good suggestion!

You have the like button to choose from ;)

It was already hinted here: You will not be happy with this kitchen! Even the amount of utensils that need to be stored contradicts the space available. And in general, the number of usage hours is not reflected in the allocated area. In my opinion, the kitchen is the hub and focal point. Not just technically. This is where cooking is done, school lunches are prepared, relaxation teas are made, birthdays planned... This MUST NOT be only 7 cramped square meters. And the hallway is simply a very(!) dark wall that constantly requires artificial light.

The kitchen is bigger than the one in the parallel thread by :cool: