Forward-looking floor plan design upper floor

If you really want to build with foresight, then you plan so that the house can be divided with reduced space requirements in square meters and single-story living with increased space requirements for hallways and bathroom/toilet is possible. A square floor plan is rather not suitable for this. I also find it baffling why you want to build a building that deviates completely in style from the neighborhood and is enormously oriented to the current trend. Timeless, integrating construction is also a form of foresight. It looks as if an alien is emerging in a grown settlement. Maybe I am mistaken.

One can also define foresight as ensuring that the house is always easy to sell in terms of size, layout/division, and amenities. Then simply sell the place in 10, 20, or 30 years and buy a new house adapted to the new phase of life. I would prefer this over the compulsive planning of "today with children," "tomorrow without children but with fit residents," and ultimately "the day after tomorrow with old and physically impaired residents." Because you cannot plan the all-in-one solution and will always have to live with compromises. And that is something I actually do not want to unnecessarily accept when building a house.

If it's just about the house - agreed. But if it's also about the location, the [Grundstück] and the integration into the social environment, the house move is something different. For some people, "putting down roots" is an aspect that determines quality of life. You can't simply leave that out - compared to that, a bit of money or a compromise in the building is not much.

I read everything again.
I can already see a few knots in there that you definitely can’t just leave hanging around.

Downstairs is the office (man is a teacher) and upstairs the guest room because we regularly have guests.

And as I said, we regularly have guests who are important to us and to whom we also want to offer a nice room to stay overnight.

The guests won’t stop coming once the children have left the house. There will probably be more of them. And if you want to offer your loved ones a nice guest room, then maybe also a bathroom instead of everyone having to get ready one after another in a guest bathroom with a shower.

We ourselves have seen how it was at Grandma’s with the many empty rooms (she used to have holiday guests). Not exactly nice.

If Grandma had holiday guests, then now she has empty rooms. Yes. But that does not apply to single-family houses without guest rooms. There are hardly any “extra” rooms left.

I don’t really care about the dressing room, it just fits well there. Nothing around it was planned at all. It just happened because we wanted to consciously integrate the staircase.

Before someone rents such a big house, they might as well buy it. But hmm... well... what happens later, and what the children want is just as uncertain, of course.

First plan for the ‘now’, then for later. The staircase issue is a massive intervention in the house. And what remains? A house with relatively little living value, somewhat fragmented, somewhat aimless, and a separate office apartment that has its entrance in the garage. The office guy doesn’t care about that. But whether I would want to rent 140 sqm with a 5 sqm shower bathroom—I don’t know.

Our staircase, for example, is a prime example. How can anyone? many scream. And I ask myself every morning, every time through the tiled entrance area, which is usually the dirtiest area of the house, possibly still wet in winter? Hmm... no.

Well, here in the forum we always advise, if possible, to separate the staircase from the entrance. With space-saving houses this is usually not possible.

At the moment, the bedroom (which for us is very puristic to relax, we only “sleep” there) and the bathroom play a subordinate role for us.

Well, a bedroom also has to somehow work as a room. With a trapped dressing room that is usually not the case. Now it just happened (again a product of the already mental remodeling), let’s just perceive it as a storage room. But then somehow some storage space for clothes is missing. The 2-meter wardrobe you see when you come in is not that great.

Originally, 160 sqm were planned.

Then build that.

I can understand the concerns about the bedroom. How and where would you arrange the bedroom?

I would shrink the whole house a bit. For example, the kitchen is too long for ergonomic working. Long islands are trendy, but are they the ultimate? No. The tall cabinets on the side are too far away—I would start there and make the kitchen itself a bit narrower. For example, the office could be put there, the shower bathroom then moved to the front. I would move the stairs to the outside wall on the right side of the plan. Upstairs: more room for rooms results from the stair shift to the left side of the plan: then a puristic bedroom is possible as well, with only wardrobes on one side.
I would also prefer a gable roof in reference to the surroundings and reduce the area upstairs slightly by boxing in the knee wall.

It is easier to rent an office room and a 140 sqm house than an entire 180 sqm house.

see above.

@Ysop Hm... yes, thanks for your objection. Indeed problematic. At the moment, I don't really care where the bathroom is, whether upstairs or downstairs. Especially since everything in our current house is pieced together. But later, it is definitely not practical to have the bedroom and bathroom on different levels. Whether the project will be realized, like so much else, is up in the air, that's true. But having a rough plan for a later separation still doesn't seem completely wrong to me. Especially since I also think a little about our children. It's easier to rent out an office space and a 140 sqm house than an entire 180 sqm house. At least here, where we live. Before someone rents such a large house, they might as well buy it. But hm... well... what will be later, and what the children want is also uncertain, of course.

I would free myself from the idea of also thinking about the children when you are no longer around.

I find Hampshire's objection quite valid as well. Are you allowed to build in a style that is very different from your surroundings?

Thank you for the answers, even though much of it misses the point.
I asked for ideas on HOW a separation into two separate areas could be sensibly achieved. I did not ask about WHETHER. Especially since, as said, it is far in the future.
I would still like to address a few thoughts.
First of all, the gallery. The upper floor was planned around it and the children's rooms. At the moment, we have a glass front in an extension on the upper floor, and we like it very much. (I am attaching a photo). We spend a lot of time there. Bright, with a nice view of the garden and the old town. Top. That is exactly what we wanted in the new house as well, and not the common door-to-door on the upper floor possibly without windows.
The floor plan turned out this way because the plot is narrow and we adapted the house with the carport to the size perfectly. The two full floors resulted because we placed value on it and it is financially possible for us.
And yes, the house fits very well into the surroundings (building permit has already been granted) because there is a mix of old and historic and new and modern here. Moreover, we also deviated from the typical roof pitch for such a house for reasons of adaptation to the surroundings. The developer had to present a computer simulation of the house and the surrounding houses, and lo and behold... it fits in very well.
Regarding the kitchen: the cooking area will be the heart of the house, as can be easily seen. We cook almost daily, I would say 80% fresh. As mentioned above, this is a rough arrangement. But it will be roughly like this, and I can assure you that you can work very ergonomically in the magic triangle there. There is no rule that says that only kitchen utensils must be stored in the kitchen. The tall cabinets in the remote corner will be used for other things.
The dressing room came about like this and is of no importance to me. Of course, it is important that there is space for cabinets; the form is secondary.
And yet, I think of my children. I myself come from humble (very loving) circumstances, had to
for the answers, even though much of it misses the point.
I asked for ideas on HOW a separation into two separate areas would be sensible. I did not ask about WHETHER. Especially since, as said, it is far in the future.
I would still like to address a few thoughts.
First of all, the gallery. The upper floor was planned around it and the children's rooms. At the moment, we have a glass front in an extension on the upper floor, and we like it very much. (I am attaching a photo). We spend a lot of time there. We read there alone or with the kids with a nice view of the garden and the old town. That is exactly what we wanted in the new house as well, and not the common door-to-door on the upper floor possibly without windows.
The floor plan turned out this way because the plot is narrow and we adapted the house with the carport perfectly to the size. The two full floors resulted because we placed value on it and it is financially possible for us.
And yes, the house fits very well into the surroundings (building permit has already been granted) because there is a mix of old and historic and new and modern here. Moreover, for reasons of adaptation to the surroundings, we also deviated from the usual roof pitch (22 degrees) and, like the surrounding buildings, chose 30 degrees. The developer had to present a computer simulation of the house and the surrounding houses, and lo and behold... it fits in very well.
Regarding the kitchen: the cooking area will be the heart of the house, as can be easily seen. We cook daily, I would say 80% fresh. As mentioned above, this is a rough arrangement. But it will be roughly like this, and I can assure you that you can work very ergonomically in the magic triangle there. There is no rule that says that only kitchen utensils must be stored in the kitchen. The tall cabinets in the remote corner will be used for other things.
The dressing room came about like this and is of no importance to me. Of course, it is important that there is space for cabinets; the form is secondary. I would describe myself as fashion-affine. Nevertheless, my 2 m wardrobe is enough for me (thanks Marie Kondo), admittedly it is ceiling-high. Because I have (almost) only clothes that I also wear, but it was a long way to get there.
And yet, I think of my children, or rather how they too can benefit as much as possible from the house if they do not want to live in it themselves. I myself come from humble (very loving) circumstances, had to figure out a lot without role models, and want my children to have it easier later. A financial cushion certainly also contributes to that.
And no, we do not intend to sell the house later (although one never knows what may come). It is (will be) not just a house, but our home, and that means much more to me than just the building.