We have a straight staircase, ground floor 110 sqm and upper floor 95 sqm. We don’t really have any tight spots.
... But then probably gave up on symmetry?
I think what wrote was somewhat generalized and applies to townhouse villa designs.
Generalized yes, I’m not stingy with that either, and especially success with less space is not entirely ruled out. But not only for townhouse villa designs, this problem also occurs with inhabited pitched roof floors.
I mean the following effect: if on one floor it is 20 cm too tight on the left of the staircase and on the other floor 60 cm too tight on the right of the staircase, you either accept such tight spots – or you need a total of 80 cm more house width (times 12 m depth, so almost ten square meters per floor) just because of the symmetry dogma.
Even if the plot allows it – which it usually doesn’t – then you have practically paid for the symmetry with those extra twenty square meters. At two thousand euros each, that’s forty thousand on the cost center “symmetry and straight staircase”; which may be fine for everyone else, but not worth it to me, and the average homebuilder already has to pay for the double garage and the terrace.