New single-family house - Join us on this journey!

A design question for you: If you want to use the basement more actively for "living" (e.g., with an office/guest room, ...), the ambiance and natural light are missing by default. What do you generally think about improving the living quality in important basement rooms with a "hillside excavation" in front of the windows? I don't know the correct term for it right now. At first glance, I like the idea because I categorically have nothing against a basement, only against the little daylight and the terrible basement windows.

Light well, you can also find examples in the Google image search. You just have to be clear that they take up space on the property.

And, in any case, I would first wait for the architect now.

Honestly? I don't know. We should first push aside the GU chaos.

But the new guy needs it too, the site plan. It's about time you apply for it!

whether I should maybe give him a little nudge in a similar direction at the next appointment.

Don't do that. Nudging is for when he totally misses the mark. Let him dig into his bag of tricks. We're curious :)

First of all, I think one thing is really cool:

You should see the one with the walls, that's even cooler ;) Let's see if I can save it. I made a mistake somewhere that all the walls became invisible or got deleted.

2) It can definitely happen that I host a friends' gathering and we want to use the sauna in the summer. Then everything takes place in our master bath...

ahem: something like that clearly belongs on the list of needs and habits. Such things are personal and should also run smoothly in everyday life.

So the two separate (small offices are fine, too) are indispensable. Somewhere we also want to accommodate the first guest room, which can possibly later be converted into a children's room, plus one permanent children's room. That way we save one room.

That didn’t come across as if you are flexible with one or two rooms. To me, it reads rigid and set in stone regarding the room requests – and apparently I’m not the only one who thinks so.

The problem is that the roof shape has to turn out harmonious. My program can’t do that at all... so we lack the eye to see if it fits. Here is the explanation: 2 offices on the ground floor with a shower toilet guarantee that in case of illness or guests, you have good accommodations on the ground floor. The stairs are rotated so that you can get bicycles out of the front door. Kitchen: I don’t think you are the open island kitchen type, so just like this for now. Airspace with balcony to secure the southwest side. Garden is in the north, but also southwest. Children’s room on the upper floor with separating corridor because of the noise from the airspace. The master side could be a bit more flexible and creative. By the way, the upper floor has an overhang on the front southwest side to protect the entrance from rain (and the children’s rooms have a reasonable size... but you could be a bit more flexible there as well). Unfortunately, the house is therefore oversized. Overhangs greater or equal to 50 cm are added to the floor area :confused:

could the balcony not be extended to the end of the house, so that you can step onto the still separated and thus private balcony through a balcony door? Basically adding another L to the existing one?

to create more living quality in important basement rooms with a "hillside excavation" in front of the windows?

The light well would be, for example, the small lawn to the east above the secondary apartment terrace. You can also create a slope for a light well in the south beneath the offices.

could the balcony not be extended to the end of the house so that you can access the still separated and thus private balcony through a balcony door? Basically adding another L to the existing one?

Yes, that could be done. You mean the west corner, which actually should get a small roof ;)
I would find a balcony next to another balcony plus also in an L shape rather pointless when there is a garden. I wouldn’t design it that way. A balcony is the TE’s wish. It’s affordable, so he gets it.
It would serve the purpose to step outside briefly in the morning and for the last cigarette in the evening, but otherwise? … You could also dry laundry well there.
But certain things you have to have, want, and then you gain experience yourself.
Here it is centrally located in the southwest for the extension of the rather narrow corridor between parents and children and intended to be accessible for everyone.
In the other design, I actually had it at the bedroom.

I don’t feel comfortable with this design because it is too large in terms of floor area. Also, upstairs feels a bit cramped to me, caused by the air space.
But I just wanted to show that a house always looks better when you play with projections and recesses. A house is more than a block; the architect is also responsible for the design.