Plot on the northern slope – next steps?

Hello everyone,

we have the opportunity to start a house construction project soon and as complete beginners we are not quite sure about the most sensible next steps.

Background:
My parents have offered us (my wife and me) the plot of land shown below to build a single-family house.
We currently live in a cozy old building apartment, children are planned in the foreseeable future, then the single-family house + small garden and the proximity to my parents would be ideal.

Development plan/restrictions:
Size of the plot: 415 sqm, details below
Slope: Yes, north slope, details below
Old building area, no development plan / §34 Building Code, in the neighborhood everything is present (e.g. 1-3 floors, shed roof, flat roof, gable roof)

Requirements of the builders:
Style, roof shape, building type: simple building shape, clearly structured, roof shape e.g. flat gable roof
Basement, floors: with or without basement (see question below), in any case 2 floors / full stories
Number of persons: 2 adults (28, 27), no children yet, 2 children's rooms planned
Space requirement: optimized for family life, e.g. we quite like this design from the forum:
Office: 1 person home office
Overnight guests per year: few to none
Open or closed architecture: mix
Conservative or modern construction: the house should ideally blend into the slope, otherwise we are flexible
Number of dining seats: 6-8
Fireplace: not necessarily
Music/stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: wooden terrace in the garden (we like being outside), possibly roof terrace for the view
Garage, carport: 2 car parking spaces inside or outside / carport
Utility garden, greenhouse: no utility garden

Here are our questions:

1) Do you basically consider the plot suitable to build a single-family house roughly as described above?
What budget would you roughly calculate for this (“normal standard”)?

2) The slope location and side access are not easy. Where would you place the building area and the house entrance?

3) Does the slope necessarily argue for a basement / residential basement or would it also be advisable from your point of view to level the ground and build with a slab foundation without a basement?

4) Friends of ours recently built a solid wood house which we like very much.
Could a solid wood house also be built on a concrete basement? Are there building materials / wall structures that you would especially recommend for sloped sites?

5) What is the best approach to the project now? In our opinion the result will only be really good if the house is ideally integrated into the relatively small plot and the slope. Therefore, we would now look for an independent architect and have him design freely first, taking into account the rough framework conditions outlined above. The general contractor planner or prefabricated house manufacturer is, in our opinion, only conditionally suitable, as they probably adapt their house types to the customer or the plot somehow, which does not necessarily lead to an optimal result. What do you think?

Many thanks & best regards!

Andy

5) How is the project best approached now?

Just draw the house and garage for yourself. Make a template for carport, house, and terrace and move them around. Keep the height differences in mind. Then you'll quickly notice how the house would have to look. Next, I would go to a financial advisor – the land will cost a lot of money. Then the architect, exactly!

Space requirements: optimized for family life, for example, we quite like this design from the forum:

At least you have dug deep in the forum for three and a half years. Which other examples did you like less, and why, or what do you like so much about this one?

Some friends of ours recently built a solid wood house that we like very much.

Again, the question: what exactly are the particular points you like about their house? - basically, a solid wood house does not differ significantly in its possibilities, i.e., one could probably "rebuild" the friends’ house out of other materials as well, and conversely, a completely different house could also be made as a solid wood house.

Do you consider the plot fundamentally suitable,

What about the neighboring plots to the left and bottom left on the plan: do you have to grant them easements?

Therefore, we would now look for an independent architect and have them freely design first, taking into account the rough framework conditions outlined above. In our opinion, the general contractor planner or prefabricated house manufacturer is only conditionally suitable, as they tend rather to adapt their house types to the customer or somehow to the plot, which does not necessarily lead to the optimal result. What do you think?

That is a wise decision, even though general contractors nowadays mostly plan "freely." But simply put, planning with the general contractor's lackey means "dry construction instead of detailed plans" and "not eliminating faulty ideas from the builders." And yes, usually somehow "carelessly shoved-in basements."

Your elevation plan is not clear. Please draw in the contour lines every 0.5 m.

Is that the parents' house in the north?

Upload some pictures of the surroundings. A printout of [Googlemap] is also helpful.

1.: The property is suitable for building a single-family house - restrictions could be imposed by the development plan and easements. Estimate the budget - let's see what the architect says.

2.: I would place the vehicle access at the lowest point of the property and possibly accept some distance from the car to the house. The expensive solution would be to drive under the house into the basement. Access and house entrance do not have to be the same.

3.: Given the size of the property, I tend towards a "basement living area." This is more space-efficient and conserves the budget with the same house size.

4.: Of course, solid wood on a concrete basement is possible. In general, I would build every wall in contact with the ground from reinforced concrete and the other walls from wood.

5.: Good idea to start with a visit to an architect.