Floor plan single-family house city villa – modern architectural design

Hello everyone,

we have received a draft from our architect, which we find great for the first attempt. Since we do not have excessive experience and would like to get tips from you, I am posting the draft here.

Please do not ponder why it has to be 500sqm. We want to build generously and accommodate all children and parents on the same floor. That gives us a certain area requirement.

Thank you in advance for your time if you want to invest it :)

Development plan/restrictions
Plot size: 1,100sqm
Slope: >6 meters gradient
Floor area ratio: 0.3
Floor space index: 0.6
Building window, building line and boundary: see floor plan
Edge development: building window maximally utilized - see floor plan
Number of parking spaces: n/a
Number of floors: 2 full floors
Roof shape: n/a
Style: n/a
Orientation: south
Maximum heights/limits: eaves height 6.5m, ridge height 10.0m
further specifications

Client requirements
Style, roof shape, building type: city villa
Basement, floors: basement + 2 full floors
Number of persons, age: 2 adults, 4 + 1 children (14, 11, 7, 7, 0)
Room requirements on ground floor, upper floor: upper floor all children along with parents
Office: family use or home office? HO for 2 adults in one office
Overnight guests per year: guests 2 occasionally
Open or closed architecture: open
Conservative or modern construction: modern
Open kitchen, cooking island: cooking island
Number of dining seats: 8 - 10
Fireplace: gas
Music/stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: no balcony needed, large terrace
Garage, carport: 4 garage spaces
Utility garden, greenhouse: no
Additional wishes/special features/daily routine, also reasons why this or that should not be:
We wanted to be able to look through the house from the entrance. You then have a wonderful view of the garden with pool and to the south.

House draft
Who designed it: architect
What do you particularly like? Why? All children accommodated on the upper floor with parents; spaciousness; openness
What do you not like? Why? Kitchen should have, in our opinion, a rather elongated kitchen island measuring 3m+, not square; parents’ bathroom too small on upper floor.
We have considered swapping the parents’ bathroom on the upper floor with a nursery for a very small child and placing the parents’ bathroom behind the parents’ bedroom.
Price estimate according to architect/planner: n/a
Personal price limit for the house, including equipment: n/a
Preferred heating technology: heat pump

If you have to do without, which details/expansions
-can you do without: n/a
-can you not do without: children and parents on one floor; bathroom sufficiently large for parents

Why is the draft designed as it is now? e.g.
Standard draft from the planner? Requirement that all children and parents should be on one floor
Which/specific wishes were implemented by the architect? All
A mix of many examples from various magazines...
What makes it particularly good or bad in your eyes?

Please no pondering why it has to be 500 sqm. We want to build generously and accommodate all children and parents on the same floor. That gives us a certain area to work with.

Look, if you have the nearly 2 million, then that’s okay. Children need space in the common rooms. Whether they actually need such large rooms is something you have to be able to afford. From about 16 sqm, children's rooms can become uncomfortable. Furniture gets lost. But of course, you can also put a sofa in a 4-year-old child’s room—that fills it up ;)

Slope: >6 meters gradient

Where is that shown? I don’t see it in the house design.

(By the way, the resolution of the pictures is poor. You can’t make out numbers.)

From our perspective, the kitchen should rather get a longer kitchen island measuring 3m +,

Yes, that’s my first complaint: too few cabinets/work surfaces, but also too dark. That little window doesn’t cut it.

I’ll also take this as an opportunity to say that the ground floor will be darker than expected. At least the open space. Because the large window area on the south side is completely covered by the upper floor. At least it appears so. As already said: I can’t compare lengths here. But the supports on the terrace indicate that the upper floor lies on top. From the inside, you basically look up at the underside of the upper floor. However, daylight comes from the east and west.

A partition wall would be good for the dining area. But also for the living area. You want to have crockery or, with 5 children, family games within reach somewhere.

Parents’ bathroom too small on the upper floor.

Really? I can read 12 sqm. 12 sqm can be sufficient with good furnishing. Here the washbasin stands opposite the window. You stand in your own light. This creates a corridor. Simply rotating the washbasin could give more light and space here. However, personally I consider having a bathroom window on the south side counterproductive if you want to use the bathroom during the day.

I find the children’s bathroom too small, though. Where are 3 children supposed to be at the same time? Where does the helping hand have room?
I also find a shared bathroom with two doors for children unsuitable: privacy equals zero there.
A bathtub would also be good in a house of nearly 400 sqm. The probability that you need it grows with the number of occupants.
What if the children get sick? Which bathroom can be used jointly then?

By the way: the toilet on the ground floor could also have a window.

The toilet in the basement must be ventilated via the roof. At the same time, the bathrooms on the upper floor have to be “drained” downwards. What are the pipe routes like? That could get very interesting.

We’ve considered swapping the parents’ bathroom on the upper floor for a children’s room for a very small child and putting the parents’ bathroom behind the parents’ bedroom

Then the parents’ bedroom becomes a walkthrough area? That’s bad.
Such ideas usually cause more effort than expected if you want to make a room accessible from the hallway that currently does not have a hallway door.

Anyone who wants a big house and does not do much there can certainly be basically satisfied with the ground floor.
For 7 people, I find some things rather thin, starting with the cloakroom, going through the small toilet (already mentioned), and into the kitchen and living area, where I initially don’t see a family TV or game night due to the lack of furniture or the possibility of nice but also functional furnishing. One could also say: not family-friendly. For example, the west window: it may look stylish, but it offers no space for a TV board.

On the upper floor, one could mention that parents do not spend time in the rooms where children do, and therefore the rooms on the south side deserve attention.

A laundry chute would be good for the utility room in the basement.

Personally, I cannot reconcile the hip roof with the facade design. Something clashes for me there.

Thank you very much first of all for the quick help. I have recreated the files and am attaching them.

we received a draft from our architect, which we think is great for the first attempt. Since we don't have excessive experience

I would have put a semicolon rather than a period there, as this is a causal connection. From an architect who starts off in third gear, I expect little beyond keeping distance. And even less when he treats the building boundary as a non-binding recommendation. Planning with imaginary dimensions is, by the way, a sign of both little expertise and zero respect for the masons. Three first impressions from an architect, result 0:3 (no good and three bad). Six meters of slope equals a height difference of two entire floors. Here, more money is being spent on terrain modeling—which itself, by the way, constitutes a construction requiring approval—than on the "actual" house. Fail, six minus. "@Gerdieter warns" Architects are regularly "artists," whose lack of construction management skills is only surpassed by their budget disloyalty. With all due Christian charity, I would skip the second chance for this architect.

Ever thought about a flat roof and less roof overhang? I think that would be much more coherent...

Six meters of slope is a full two floors of height difference. Here, more money is spent on terrain modeling - which, by the way, itself constitutes a construction that requires approval - than on the "actual" house.

Yes. I constantly have the same in mind, but I also don’t want to always wield the club. Furthermore:

Maximum heights/limits: eaves height 6.5m, ridge height 10.0m

..there will be a height reference somewhere. This is usually located somewhere on the street.