Single-family city villa with tent roof - visual single-story appearance

Hello everyone,

I am not an architect and only have limited knowledge.

I want to build a single-family house with my family in 38108 Braunschweig, and we have already had some setbacks.

Now we have planned and signed for a second time a single-family house in the style of a city villa with a hipped roof (two-story) with a developer.

Unfortunately, the local building authority has rejected the building application because the building does not fit into the surroundings, as there are only single-story houses with gable roofs there. The development plan (1954) does not specify anything except a building envelope of 10m x 10m.

We have now spoken with the person in charge at the building authority, and he says it is enough for him if the house appears visually to be single-story but remains two-story in calculation.

That is also the subject of my question, and honestly, I cannot imagine what he means, but he did not say anything further in response to the question. Our architect is now thinking about how to change it, but I thought the wealth of knowledge and experience here in the forum might be able to help us.

I am familiar with the definition of the number of stories in NDS: 2/3 of the ground floor under 2.20 m.

I hope this is explained somewhat understandably.

I look forward to answers that I can understand, as I said, I am a layman.

Thank you very much Marc

Hello,

I am not an expert in building law and planning, so you will surely get more technically sound answers... As far as I understand it and as you described it, the person from the building authority means that the calculative basis (2/3 of the ground floor... etc.) does not matter to him, so you could be over it, but from the outside it should not look like a two-story building. There are probably different approaches (whether they are stylish, sensible, cost-effective, or whatever else is aside for now). For example, only a low knee wall, choosing the roof pitch and shape so that it optically remains one-story, working with dormers....

Hello face26,

thank you very much for your reply.

Exactly, he just wants the visual impression that it is not two-story, but for this I lack the understanding of how something like this can look and what possibilities we have to achieve this?

§34 is very broadly interpretable - find a capable architect who is also willing to take on the fight with the building authorities. Then you can definitely achieve more. Even though I am personally not a fan of these pepper mill houses (=town villas), it always annoys me how developers are constantly thrown obstacles in their way.

Exactly, he just wants the visual impression that it is not two-storey, but precisely for that I lack understanding, what could such a thing look like and what possibilities do we have to achieve this?

You hit the nail on the head, how is that supposed to work with an urban villa...
If you don’t want to take the legal route, the only option left is basically to switch to a house with a gable roof. Since the building application was apparently already rejected, there are actually few chances.

I personally spoke with the caseworker; he was very nice but, as mentioned, has concerns about §34, which I can understand from his point of view.

The building application was not officially rejected; we were merely informed that the two-story construction according to §34 does not fit into the surroundings.

Actually, our house should have been completed by 11/2018, which means we have been paying the bank a lot without having a house or at least seeing any construction progress. This means that the time to take legal action is not available from a financial perspective.

However, I do not want to unnecessarily complain to the caseworker at the building authority about what consequences this has for our family if he refers to §34 and says no two-story house.