New single-family house 190 m² for a 4-member family

Development Plan/Restrictions

Size of the plot: 630 m²
Slope: slight incline towards the street
Site coverage ratio 0.35
Floor area ratio 1.0

Edge development: centrally located in a cul-de-sac in a new development area (development will start next year), cul-de-sac ends to the north, purely residential area with little traffic, as it is a small town (<2,000 inhabitants)
Number of parking spaces
Number of floors: Ground floor + 1 + attic as maximum limit
Roof shape: gable roof
Architectural style
Orientation: east-west
Maximum heights/limits: 7.0 m +/- 0.3 m
Further requirements

Clients’ Requirements

Basement, floors: no basement; 2 floors plus attic (desired knee wall height on upper floor still unclear)
Number and age of persons: family of 4 - two children (2 and 5 years old at move-in)
Space requirements on ground floor, upper floor
Office: family use or home office? family use
Guests staying overnight per year: rarely
Open kitchen, kitchen island
Number of dining seats: 4
Fireplace: yes (centrally in the living room with internal chimney or on the exterior wall?)
Music/stereo wall
Balcony, roof terrace: possibly garage roof as terrace; also terrace on the south side connected to the living room
Garage, carport:
Utility garden, greenhouse: utility garden
Photovoltaics, cistern for garden (possibly also for toilet use => cost question, still unclear)

House Design
Who designed the plan:
- Do-it-Yourself: yes
What is particularly liked? Why? Large living room facing south
What is not liked? Why?
Price estimate according to architect/planner: 400,000 euros turnkey as KFW 55 standard prefabricated house with air-water heat pump (without garage; including base slab)
Personal price limit for the house including equipment: 500,000 euros including incidental construction costs
Preferred heating technology: heat pump with ring trench collector

If you have to give up, on which details/extensions
- you can do without: large garage
- you cannot do without:

Why did the design turn out like it is now? For example
Based on various prefabricated houses, we designed our own floor plan. The study on the ground floor should be large enough to possibly be used as a bedroom. The living room should face south, the children's rooms should be the same size. We would put the washing machine in the storage room if possible.

What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?
General room layout and location? Which knee wall height (1m; 1.2m; 1.6m) is optimal regarding space gain, cost savings, and light incidence on the upper floor?

Hello,

I hope the explanations on the drawings are readable and comprehensible.
According to the development plan, only a knee wall height of 50 cm is foreseen, but according to a telephone inquiry, deviations will be approved as long as the maximum ridge height is not exceeded.

In the drawing, I do not see any furniture displayed.

The staircase should run straight in the hallway on the west side so that you arrive in front of the two doors/children’s rooms and parents’ bedroom.

Floor-to-ceiling windows are planned for the living room facing south, all other windows are "normal."
The kitchen is planned in the southeast corner of the house, hence the passage to the pantry. Originally, no pantry was planned, but a large utility room. On the advice of the house seller/advisor, a wall was inserted there so that you don’t walk directly from the kitchen into the utility room.
A fireplace either in the living room next to the living room door or on the west wall.
Unfortunately, the furniture was not included during export:
Staircase straight in the hallway on the right (as seen from the house entrance, so that you reach the children’s rooms/parents’ bedroom doors on the upper floor).

The current floor plan is based on external dimensions of 10.50 m by 11 m.

If anything is unclear, please ask; otherwise, please feel free to ask questions and criticize, I am not here to be praised (of course that too, but that is not the purpose of this exercise).

Hi, does the staircase and door to the southern children's room work?

Yes. This is my floor plan drawing, which the seller received; afterwards, the provider's draftsman created a more professional design, which I do not have on hand but was only shown to me for viewing.

To put it briefly: Yes, the stair length and the space around the door work.

Hi, does the stair and door to the southern children's room work?

A clear design with walls that do not stand on top of each other - that has to be assessed by a structural engineer. You will love the folding system (if that is one in the drawing) to the garden facing south! I would place both children’s rooms to the south. They spend much more time in their rooms during the day in the long run and can use the light better than a parents’ bedroom. You can still manage the same size well. I really like this idea of equal size. Do you mean the unclear knee wall height in the upper floor the attic / loft? I think the house is very livable.

Thank you for the answer. I will try swapping rooms. Is it even relevant in a prefabricated house whether the interior walls line up?

Regarding your question:

It’s about the 1st floor, where the bedrooms are located. Since two full floors plus an attic are allowed (but not required), we considered building it that way and then using the attic as storage space without knee walls. But firstly, we don’t need the entire footprint as storage, and secondly, that would make it more expensive again, which would mean reducing the exterior dimensions.

Whether folding doors or double doors, that’s debatable and also a matter of cost; important to us is plenty of light from that direction.

Now we are wondering which knee wall height offers more advantages:
Rather 1.60m — less roof slope in the rooms, but then the roof windows are quite high up and I have "dark walls," since no windows can go into the exterior wall (south) there.
Rather 1m — lower costs, roof windows lower down and therefore easier to reach.
Does anyone know how much you can actually save if you reduce the knee wall by 0.50m?
For the exterior dimension, I’ve already been given a range of about 20,000–25,000 euros per meter several times; is there such a guideline value also for height?

A clear design with walls that don’t line up — that has to be assessed by a structural engineer. The folding system (if that is what it is in the drawing) facing the garden to the south, you will love it! I would put both kids in the south. They spend much more time in their rooms during the day in the long run and can use the light better than a parents’ bedroom. You can still manage to have the same size. I think this idea of equal size is very good.
Do you mean with unclear knee wall height on the upper floor the attic / loft?
I think the house is very livable.

A full floor and attic without knee walls seems to me to be the most practical solution for everyday life and a good investment. Some roof slope from a height of 2 meters is no longer bothersome and does not require a roof window.
There is always potential for savings with the garage – it can also be built later or replaced by a carport.
Consider that children move their vehicles for playing and in practice, with the location of the garage, two vehicles parked side by side are in the way and certainly won’t remain scratch-free. Also, a double garage is not sufficient in practice for 2 vehicles AND children’s vehicles. Therefore, in my opinion, the double garage is not only an expensive but also a poor solution.
Whether folding units or large wings – a large opening to the garden is wonderful.