House planning on existing land

Hello,

we already have a plot and are considering how to best “place” the house on it.

The plot is 665sqm, about 21.5m wide and 31m long, access from the south side, slope S->N about 1.5m, O->W about 2m. Relatively free building window, except for 3m in front and back as well as usual boundary distances. See No.6 in the attached plan.

We would like a house with about 140-150sqm living space on ground floor + upper floor (without or possibly with high knee wall) + double garage. Two fundamental questions “torment” us:

1. With or without basement? Is a basement “recommended” for the slight slope? Basically, we would be fine without a basement, then with a small technical room on the ground floor and a small utility room on the upper floor + possibly a slightly larger garage. However, if the basement would not cost much more due to the conditions, we would not object. A partial basement would also suffice, but one often reads about only small savings compared to a full basement? With a basement, the house could then also have only 140sqm instead of 150sqm. We would not want less than that because we would like to have an office/guest room on the ground floor.

2. An at least equally important question is where/how to best position the house? Because of the south access, it is unfortunately not that easy. So far, we have the following ideas (the first 2 see sketch attached):

a) House with east entrance as far back as possible in the northeast, garage with 5-6m forecourt at the front in the southeast. Plus: Lots of southwest garden, privacy through garage. Minus: Longer and not dry path to the house.

b) House with east entrance roughly centered at the back and garage adjacent to the east as a boundary attachment. Plus: Direct access to the house, lots of south garden. Minus: Long driveway (snow clearing), less west garden.

c) House with west entrance roughly centered at the back and garage adjacent to the west as a boundary attachment. Plus: Direct access to the house, lots of south garden. Minus: Long driveway (snow clearing), no west garden but rather some east garden.

Possibly we would not push the house all the way back as far as possible, but leave some north garden. So instead of 3m minimum distance maybe 5 - 7m. As a non-overlooked and shaded garden area in midsummer. Sensible or not?

I’m curious about your opinions and tips. Thanks in advance.
Regards, Thomas

I don’t like either variant: I didn’t want my garage to be that wide in front of my south side, nor such a long driveway (which also costs floor space index!). With the tree in the driveway, neither option fits very well.

Regarding the basement, I recently said in another thread in general terms that for every 1.0 m height difference within the house’s footprint, about 50% of the cost of a basement is incurred, whether you build it or have to "compensate" for it (through deeper foundation of the slab, terrain modeling, or a combination thereof); practically from 2.0 m height difference on, a basement omitted therefore costs as much as a built one. As is usual with rules of thumb, they are rough (and someone will always say: too rough). Partial basements are absolutely somewhat cheaper, but relatively hardly so (again roughly: half a basement costs about three quarters of a full one).

Thank you for your opinion. How would you do it then given these circumstances?

By the way, the tree doesn't have to stand exactly there, it's just a suggestion. At the moment there is nothing there, as in the whole area, it is currently being developed.

First of all, I would spare myself self-imposed restrictions. With a plot of this size, there is no need to overdo it by wanting to have as much garden area as possible on the south side. Also, the frequently read delusion here that anything beyond three meters of distance between trunk and fridge would be like the end of the world – ideally, one should have a drive-in pantry – and that the umbrella has not yet been invented, only draws from me a tired, sympathetic smile. In "my" street, the next parking space after the weekly shopping is regularly only found 20 meters away from the front door. With a garage less than 100 meters from the apartment, one is already considered high nobility here. My neighbors and I make use of an invention called doormats, so one can even walk barefoot through the stairwell shortly behind the mailboxes.

I would therefore place the house with priority one in the building area where it is most beautiful. I would not put the front door in the north here, for two reasons: first, a practical one, not to turn the path from the street into a tiring procession route; second, an aesthetic one: as a homeowner, you do not enter a house through the delivery entrance.

My second priority would be the garden. In summer, one may also want to take the living room view outside, and one should be able to find sun and shade there. I do not care who can look at my cake plate from where.

The cars – whether Porsche or not – should please go into the basket where there is still space. This outbuilding may gladly be designed as shading as a side effect, but I do not allow a coach house to obstruct the view of the portal. That is where the cars sleep – nothing more. Whether they sleep separately or in a double garage, I gladly leave to the balancing of the overall ensemble.

If this garage must abandon the main and side entrance dogma, in my opinion the most essential knot is already cut, and one can get to work fresh and cheerfully. The downside of South Street is "half as bad" with this plot size. For this, the building area has pleasantly much "play" – however with the little catch that the neighbor may use it quite differently. For my question of where I have shade in my garden, early communication with the neighbors is enlightening.

Do I understand correctly that the property slopes down to the back left (plan) or to the northwest?

Maybe we wouldn’t push the house all the way to the back as far as possible, but would leave some north garden. So instead of a minimum distance of 3m maybe 5 - 7m. As a not visible and shady garden area in midsummer. Useful or rather not?

I would also separate the thoughts, as so nicely says. And of course you also have sun on the property to the north. The higher you build your house, the more shaded it will be in the north when the sun is lower in the east or west. Even in winter there is more shade on the house at noon, but the garden itself, i.e. the green area, is fully usable – both in the north and in the south. The catch, however, is that you also want sunlight in the living rooms. But that can be achieved with clever room and window planning. I would probably plan a basement according to room requirements, but not necessarily another full story above the ground floor. You can accommodate the bedrooms, for example, in the basement (as well as the utility room and technical room) with access to the garden, as well as the living rooms on the ground floor with additional access to the terrace. The terrace can be arranged terrace-style, as the name suggests – meaning: on, for example, two levels. I would probably envision the entrance in the east or southeast, the terrace side in the west, a nice garden area in the south as well as in the north. The exact positioning should be determined with the existing heights. And a bit of digging is inevitable anyway. Moreover, external influences (other houses, vegetation, etc.) must be taken into account. On the upper floor (ground floor?) sunlight could be led into the north rooms through an (offset) shed roof. Garage results

Thank you for your tips.

Due to the ongoing development (and at the same time the possible routing of the connections onto the property), we had to decide on the approximate location of the technical room. It will be in the northeast corner of the building about 6.5m away from the eastern property boundary. This is a special case of our municipal utilities. It restricts things a bit, but hopefully shouldn't be a problem. If we don't do it now, in a couple of months we will have to break up the fresh asphalt and then run the main line onto the property, which involves corresponding costs.

We found out that the property is not oriented 100% to the south, but slightly to the southwest, which is not bad anyway. So south is not in the direction down the property, but rather as the sheet points straight down. But this does not change much about the basic considerations.

So from you I hear that you would initially only consider the house itself and rather not push it too far back, right?

Because it was asked, yes the property slopes slightly to the northwest. Minimally to the north and gently to the west. In the northwest corner, the slope is slightly steeper. See the contour lines. From the feeling, the nicest part is somewhere in the middle towards the eastern boundary. There it is a bit flatter and one is still somewhat higher. You look westward and northward onto a beautiful forest behind the development area.

It also depends on how the neighbors build. The eastern neighbor is taking their time, the western one I still have to reach, that one would be more important.

I had already thought of a solution like ypg kindly suggests. Basically like a bungalow, but with a bit of a basement and living space below. But having the bedrooms downstairs might not be our thing. But we will keep that as a possible option in mind.

Basically, we are rather thinking of a modern house with ground floor + upper floor and a flat pitched roof. Hmm...

We already had an initial conversation with the architect of our general contractor. Maybe still too early, but we didn't get much new input. More like garage left or right, no basement is too expensive, just a slab is fine...