Single-family house (10x8.8 sqm) on 437 sqm plot in Munich

Hello everyone,

My partner and I have finally purchased a large plot of land with 437sqm in Munich-Eching and will soon build our prefabricated single-family house on it with Streif Haus. Around 145sqm of living space are planned on 9.96m x 8.71m. More is simply not possible due to the budget (e.g. 1m more length on one side costs about 30k more).

So far, I have created all floor plans with a tool. Last Friday we had our first appointment with the architect. Unfortunately, he discarded some of our wishes:
- Gallery over the upper floor,
Room arrangement on the upper floor (both children’s rooms should face south, bedroom and bathroom north, although we would have preferred it the other way around)
- All terrace wishes
- Bathroom design (we wanted a T-shape, i.e. the sink a bit more in the room, behind it the toilet and shower. Freestanding bathtub in the room.
etc.

I have attached my plans for ground floor/upper floor. Since the plot is not rectangular but very angled, the position of the house alone is difficult to plan, as of course you want the garden and the largest windows in the living room and kitchen to face south. In the attached site plan, the house is still positioned very centrally (with 12x9m). We will shift it as far as possible to the right towards the east.

We also considered changing the type of stairs (e.g. half-landing stairs), but according to the architect, the straight staircase belongs to the “Stadtvilla” house type from STREIF. Opinions from you are welcome here. If I change the staircase type, the entire floor plan will be discarded and planning will start from scratch - but that would also be okay, as it is a “big” matter.

The architect plans the entrance not to the south directly over the street Schlossberg, but to the north - by going onto the plot over the street, the house runs sideways along the garage and you enter after the bend in the north. So opposite to what is intended in the site plan. That is quite a “long” way. What do you think about that?

Remarks can be found below with the questions. Feedback on the floor plan is welcome!

Development plan/restrictions
Size of the plot: 437sqm
Slope: no
Site occupancy index
Floor area ratio
Building window, building line and boundary: Building line with house in the northwest (not yet correctly positioned on the site plan)
Edge development as far northeast on the plot as possible, with compliance to the legal setback distances to neighbors 6m.
Number of parking spaces: Planned 1 carport, 1 garage.
Number of floors: 2 (without basement)
Roof shape: hip roof or gable roof
Style direction modern
Orientation: southwest
Maximum heights/limits n/a
Other specifications n/a

Client requirements
Style, roof shape, building type: Prefab house by STREIF, type "Cityvilla", no bay window, rectangular
Basement, floors: without basement, 1.5 floors (without roof slopes, with roof hatch to small, non-habitable attic)
Number of persons, age: 2 persons, 36 and 30 years old.
Space requirements on ground floor, upper floor:
Ground floor: large living room, open kitchen and dining, utility room/technology/pantry (connected via kitchen), guest bathroom, hallway, guest room/office/hobby room.
Upper floor: bedroom, 2 children’s rooms, large bathroom, possibly gallery
Office: family use or home office?: Both – the office is upstairs where often music is played loudly and downstairs is the hobby room with fitness equipment planned. This can change when children are present.
Guests per year: 10 days
Open or closed architecture: open
Conservative or modern construction: modern
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open, preferably with kitchen island and access to utility room/pantry
Number of dining seats: 4-6
Fireplace: desired, but still to be planned, i.e. pre-planned, later built for priority and budget reasons.
Music/stereo wall: yes, with floor-standing speakers and external subwoofer.
Balcony, roof terrace: no. (originally desired, but use/cost factor is not appealing since a large garden is available.
Garage, carport: First garage, then carport (2 spaces are required).
Kitchen garden, greenhouse: no.
Further wishes/special features/daily routine, gladly also reasons why this or that should not be:
The guest room/fitness room is deliberately planned large as I want to accommodate some equipment. Possibly a table tennis table will also be used in the room in winter.
The usefulness is still being considered. There is no basement. Later a garden shed should be built in the garden.

Since we have little space, any tip about storage of things that normally belong in the basement is helpful!
Walk-in closet in the bedroom is desired.

House design
Who made the planning: By me via tool.
-Architect:
We have already had an architect appointment. Some wishes were already "talked out" like covered garage (east), covered terrace into the garden (southwest) or the gallery of the upper floor.
- The architect recommends having all sanitary facilities on one "level", i.e. guest bath/technical room on the ground floor exactly underneath the bathroom on the upper floor.
- He recommends orienting the children’s rooms to the south and not the bedroom or bath as we initially wished. (Children play more in the room in the sun). However, we would prefer the sun in the bedroom or when bathing (bath in front of window with privacy screen planned) as the room is brighter and more relaxing.

-Planner of a construction company: Prefabricated house will be built with STREIF Haus. Architect is a STREIF architect.

-Do-it-Yourself: We purchased the FastFertigPLUS product. That means wall, floor and garden work will be done by ourselves. Since I am handy, wall and floor work should not be a problem. For terrace construction and garden design, we are still considering whether to hand it over to professionals.
What do you particularly like?
Why? Large plot with single-family house (for Munich conditions).
With the layout, the open feeling with large living and dining area as well as open kitchen.
What do you not like? Why?
The hallway takes up a lot of space especially upstairs. If the hallway is restricted to the front side, the rooms can be larger at the expense of openness (see attachment, test design). Whether that makes sense or rather restricts upstairs is unclear?
The plot is large but not rectangular. So the planning regarding house position with south orientation while complying with minimum distances is very difficult.
Price estimate according to architect/planner: 306,000 € for the finished house without ancillary costs and planning costs.
Personal price limit for the house, incl. equipment: about 15,000 € can still be planned. We expect higher costs after choosing fittings, especially for sanitary, sliding windows and electronic blinds on the ground floor (with "standard" execution on the upper floor).
Photovoltaic system with storage (including subsidy via Kfw 40+) and garage are still under consideration.
Preferred heating technology: Air-air heat pump. Underfloor heating in the bathroom.
Possibly a photovoltaic system with storage will be added. We will get information about cost/benefit.

If you have to give up, which details/extensions
-can you do without: Gallery on the upper floor to enlarge bedroom and children’s rooms. But the appearance and the bright and open living feel would be somewhat lost.
-can you not do without: Photovoltaic system, carport (next to garage)

Why did the design turn out as it is now? e.g.
Standard design from planner? Self-created.
Which wishes were implemented by the architect? All sanitary facilities in one "line" vertically. No covered terraces/balconies or basic roof covering. Entrance to the house via the north side, i.e. not directly from the street but once 90 degrees around the house. Does that make sense?
A mix of many examples from various magazines... Partly inspired by the STREIF show house in Cologne, e.g. the gallery.
What makes it particularly good or bad in your eyes?
Since it is mostly my own plan, hard to say. The architect plans the exit via the large window in the dining area (which also makes sense). However, you then do not enter the largest part of the garden, but rather closer to the street. You would first have to walk briefly around the house to get to the "main" garden (basically exit via the living room). I am not yet completely satisfied with the arrangement and the garden exit.

If I were planning with budget sensitivity, the options "or hipped roof" and the airspace would certainly be much higher on my final list than the floor area square meters. With a hipped roof, a different basic type would be appropriate anyway; the one with knee wall tends to be too luxurious with asterisks. What does the development plan even say about roof shape and pitch (and ridge direction)? - the house symbols on the site plan even raise fears that a clear house axis might be desired, also regarding the aspect ratio.

The entrance is actually located here on the long side facing the street - so what does the architect mean by wanting to place it on the side?
How certain is it that the correct starting model has even been chosen here?

The planning tool is not very helpful - neither the purely symbolic wall thicknesses nor the exact measurements of irrelevant dimensions (such as distances from window center axes) contribute anything useful to the discussion.

A chaos.

First of all, I want to tell you that you have a very small plot. Even if it might be a giant by Munich standards, it remains a dwarf when it comes to building. You already have problems placing your small house.

Of course, it makes sense to choose the staircase form that requires the least space for small houses. That would probably be the half-turned one with 2.20m x 2.20m. But it always depends on the other wishes.

Have you already signed with Streif Haus Haus? If yes, why?

I don’t see that you can manage with 15K upcharge. I find the budget question criminal if that is your entire buffer.

Regarding the floor plan:
I am not familiar with Streif Haus Haus but apparently, the architect is trying to sell you a floor plan from the drawer – presumably to stay somehow within the budget. Since the selection is limited, he offers the straight staircase and the entrance from the back.

How flexible is the floor plan at Streif Haus Haus at all? What does a plan according to your own suggestions cost extra?

Since everything is so tight here, a discussion only becomes interesting when you provide the exact plot dimensions. Then you can talk about the exact positioning of the house. From that, a sensible layout would result and then one can see what money is still left.

Oh my goodness! What kind of nonsense have they told you?

Your buffer is already at –35k€ with what is stated. What is not stated will be added on top.
What do you want with an air-to-air heat pump? Do you have any idea how much electricity it consumes? The PV system won't help you if only 10-20% is generated from the end of November to the end of February. That's barely enough for the base load and possibly hot water. The heating is completely out of the question then! You can also turn off the storage for 3 months because it won't fill up and you will consume everything directly.

I don’t even want to say anything about the floor plan! So much nice large space on the ground floor and so much rubbish. My goodness!

Have you ever looked at the terrain level? Am I correct in seeing that there are quite a few meters of height difference between the plots? Do you have a slope?

Have you dealt with the [Baunebenkosten]?

To first address only the location of the house on the property, I definitely see an entrance in the northeast (if the southeast is to be avoided because of the terrace area). I have attached 2 possible positions – depending on the permissibility of the development plan. I can’t make sense of your note "building line in the northwest." Is the line toward the street a building line (which would then be southeast) or just a building boundary? If it’s a building line, variant 1 would no longer work. The more I look at it, the more I like variant 2. The terrace could be in the southwest, slightly wrapped around into the northwest corner with a shady spot during the day and later nice evening sun – wonderful! (1) (2)

I see the entrance in the east (or in the south), not in the north or south. For the floor plan it is actually nicer to have the entrance in the north, but you always grant postal workers, craftsmen, etc. a view into your entire property. With the entrance in the east, the northwest part of the property remains “private” and also enjoys lovely evening sun. The “corner” in the garden could be used by a “creative” garage, i.e., custom designed, not a prefabricated garage, for example as a storage place for bicycles or a workshop corner.

Regarding the floor plan: Given the relatively small floor area, I would forgo gimmicks like a gallery. Are 2 full stories planned (Streif Haus Stadtvilla) or 1.5 stories? If I look at Streif Haus WD1000 as a basic design, I would rotate the house so that the entrance is in the northeast, mirror the room arrangement on the ground floor (utility room and shower in the north) and keep the upper floor as is (children’s rooms in the south, bedroom in the northwest, bathroom in the northeast). The northwest will be the quietest corner for you as well (distance from the street). Children’s rooms in the south make sense – children want light and to sometimes see what’s going on in the street.

Are you bound to Streif Haus? A variant from the Bien-Zenker house Evolution might perhaps fit the property quite well – for example the Evolution Stuttgart, or the EVOLUTION 134 V4.