Plot arrangement & orientation Single-family house with 160 sqm south-facing slope

Hello everyone, My wife and I are actually about to request offers for our construction project, and now I am doubting our basic planning. I was basically of the opinion that we had already considered and discussed all approaches and perspectives, and the current approach would finally be the only correct one. However, I am no longer so sure about that. Overall, I find it difficult to get the best out of the plot orientation. Therefore, I ask for your honest feedback.

I think it’s good that you are expressing your doubts here. Your plan is not feasible because many requirements of the development plan have not been considered. Please have an architect design this who also understands the development plan. I have already pointed out in detail where the mistakes are. If you want help here, you should specify the development plan. Please do not provide a link as this is not permitted here.

The answers are probably not what you wanted to hear/read?

First of all, I wish everyone a happy new year and thank you for your patience!

Attached I have included:
- graphic part of the development plan (the property is marked with X)
- overview of property profiles (created by the surveying engineering office)
- profile no. 3







My answers will follow.

With a slope, you can really achieve great things, and an architect with good spatial imagination is worth their weight in gold. I can speak from experience. This also helps to avoid basic mistakes that laypeople tend to make. In your planning, in my opinion, you are handling the plot area inefficiently – a lot goes to the driveway and garage. You are also quite generous with the required earthworks, which are very cost-relevant. Here, an architect can even save the budget with intelligent solutions without having to make compromises. Since I have no idea how you want to live with your family, I cannot contribute anything about the orientation. Often, builders give too little thought to what specifically contributes to their quality of life and stare fixated at the plot and building structure. Recognizing a good architect is difficult. Bad ones reveal themselves quickly: They show too little interest in the preferences of the builders, which lie behind the wishes they express voluntarily in conversation.

Since I have no idea how you want to live with your family, I can’t contribute anything to the orientation. Often, builders don’t give enough thought to what specifically contributes to their quality of life and stare as if nailed to the plot and building structure. It is hard to recognize a good architect. Bad ones are revealed quickly: they are too little interested in the preferences of the builders behind the wishes they voluntarily express in conversation.

Well, at least you can easily recognize the bad architects. In your former life, there were still social punctuation marks here.

You can really do something great with a hillside location, and an architect with good spatial imagination is worth their weight in gold. I can speak from experience here.

Hehe, you also have a plot where "a lot of height difference fits on it." In ... see above.

That also helps avoid basic mistakes that laymen tend to make. In your planning, in my opinion, you are handling the plot area inefficiently – very much goes for the driveway and garage. You are also quite generous with necessary earthworks, which are very cost-relevant. Here an architect can even protect the budget with intelligent solutions without making compromises.

I would put it a bit sharper, speak of avoidable earthworks and the omission of decadent solutions. Many prospective builders sink (due to the domino chain of contortions for that) the price of the entire garage (or more) again solely on the cost item house-garage-pass-through.

Many prospective builders sink (through the domino chain of contortions for it) the price of the entire garage (or more) alone on the cost center house-garage-passage.

In the end, because of the desired location of the house, we moved a little over 20 cubic meters of soil (or rock) for every square meter of living space. If that doesn't ruin you, it's great. Fun fact: the house now looks as desired, as if it had always been there. The slope has visually hardly changed, even though all the excavation was redistributed on the property.