Fleckenzwerg
2020-05-26 11:26:14
- #1
Good morning,
for a few months now we have been working on the floor plan for our planned single-family house on a 500m² leasehold property.
A general contractor from the area has already created a series of floor plans based on our wishes, which are:
- Open living space (the classic), but "around the corner" – we don’t want to see dirty pots in the kitchen from the couch
- Guest WC with shower (we already have 2 girls, aged 1 and 3, a third child is planned in 2-4 years)
- Spacious utility room, as no basement is planned
- Garage 4.5 x 9m, with side entrance to the utility room
- 3 children’s rooms + office (I regularly work from home)
We have imagined a footprint of about 10 x 10m for the house; with a plot width of about 17.5m, a wider house would only be at the expense of the garage; in depth, up to 14m are allowed according to the development plan (ridge direction parallel to the street).
The question we ask ourselves is how best to accommodate the planned rooms. Two variants occur to us:
1) Two children’s rooms on the upper floor, child’s room 3 and office in the (then developed) attic (gable height 10m, roof pitch 45°).
2) All 3 children’s rooms on the upper floor, office on the ground floor, and attic not developed.
With variant 1, we quickly noticed that the staircase, which would then have to lead to the attic, becomes a pivotal point for the entire floor plan. The space is used most efficiently when the floor stairs are stacked exactly on top of each other (right?). It cannot be placed on the gable side, because otherwise only one room would make sense in the attic; placing it all the way at the eaves side doesn’t work either because of the maximum eaves height of 4.10m, the necessary headroom is missing. So it can only somehow be placed in the middle of the footprint. However, this again takes away some design freedom for the rest of the house.
Variant 2 is possible with 10 x 10m, but the rooms would probably be somewhat small (children’s rooms partially 11m² living space, office 9m² also quite tight). The building window allows up to 10 x 14m. Increasing width or depth would probably be the quick and easy solution to the problem, but probably also the most expensive one.
Our general contractor said that creating living space in the attic is relatively inexpensive because you already have the attic anyway. That sounds logical. Are there any contradictory experiences here in the forum?
Although the general contractor has implemented all our wishes in one floor plan, we are not completely happy in several places; somehow it still doesn’t quite fit.
For an overview, here is a section from the development plan. The property is roughly within the red marking.
And here is a draft of the floor plan:
Development Plan/Restrictions
Size of the plot: 499m²
Slope: no
Floor area ratio: 0.4
Floor space index: n.a.
Building window, building line and boundary line: line 3m behind the planned street, building window depth 14m
Edge development: garages/carports allowed
Number of parking spaces: on the plot
Number of floors: max. 2 full floors
Roof shape: gable roof
Style: single-family house or duplex
Orientation: eaves side to the street
Maximum heights/limits ridge height max. 4.10m; roof ridge max. 10.0m; roof pitch 35-45°
Other requirements
Requirements of the builders
Style, roof shape, building type: solid house with clinker brick, gable roof, single-family house
Basement, floors: no basement; ground floor, upper floor, possibly attic
Number of persons, ages: 4-5, 36, 33, 3, 1, ?
Room requirements ground floor, upper floor
Office: family use or home office? Home office, but if possible also a small "retreat" with 2-person couch, table + TV
Overnight guests per year: not relevant
Open or closed architecture. see above
Conservative or modern construction. According to our needs; whether this is conservative or modern, no idea.
Open kitchen, cooking island, open, no cooking island
Number of dining places: 6; with the option to extend for guests (extendable table)
Fireplace: no
Music/stereo wall: yes, ideally space for 5.1 system
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: garage 4.5 x 9m
Utility garden, greenhouse? Strawberries, tomatoes, some herbs, otherwise terrace and lawn for children’s playground
Other wishes/special features/daily routine, also reasons why this or that should or shouldn’t be
House design
Who designed it: -planner from a construction company
What do you particularly like? Why? See below.
What do you not like? Why? See below.
Price estimate according to architect/planner: an earlier draft was around 315k€; I estimate we are already somewhat higher here.
Personal price limit for the house, incl. equipment: 350k€
Favored heating technology: ground source heat pump with drilling or loop collector (but because of plot size difficult, probably drilling).
Photovoltaics planned, but in addition to the budget mentioned above.
If you had to do without, which details/expansions
-you could do without:
dormer
side entrance from the garage to the utility room
developed attic if the rooms are arranged differently.
-you cannot do without:
3 children’s rooms, office
Why is the design as it is now?
e.g. standard design from the planner? Designed for us, with suggestions and sketches from our side.
Which wishes were implemented by the architect? see above.
What makes it particularly good or bad in your eyes?
Some things just don’t fit quite right. The quarter-turned staircase on the upper floor takes up space, making the hallway quite large. The dressing area for the master bedroom can be used poorly despite the dormer because there is simply no place to put a larger wardrobe. We are not sure whether the "L" in the living and dining area is drawn too long, so it feels like a corridor. Our wishes were implemented, but it is difficult for us to imagine whether the rooms, as they are, are practical in their proportions and shapes.
What is the most important/fundamental question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?
Maybe we are too set in our ideas and can no longer imagine other room arrangements. There are many experiences here in the forum about what works and what doesn’t. Maybe with the suggestions here we can create a floor plan that is more consistent overall and that we like better.
Many thanks in advance for this.
for a few months now we have been working on the floor plan for our planned single-family house on a 500m² leasehold property.
A general contractor from the area has already created a series of floor plans based on our wishes, which are:
- Open living space (the classic), but "around the corner" – we don’t want to see dirty pots in the kitchen from the couch
- Guest WC with shower (we already have 2 girls, aged 1 and 3, a third child is planned in 2-4 years)
- Spacious utility room, as no basement is planned
- Garage 4.5 x 9m, with side entrance to the utility room
- 3 children’s rooms + office (I regularly work from home)
We have imagined a footprint of about 10 x 10m for the house; with a plot width of about 17.5m, a wider house would only be at the expense of the garage; in depth, up to 14m are allowed according to the development plan (ridge direction parallel to the street).
The question we ask ourselves is how best to accommodate the planned rooms. Two variants occur to us:
1) Two children’s rooms on the upper floor, child’s room 3 and office in the (then developed) attic (gable height 10m, roof pitch 45°).
2) All 3 children’s rooms on the upper floor, office on the ground floor, and attic not developed.
With variant 1, we quickly noticed that the staircase, which would then have to lead to the attic, becomes a pivotal point for the entire floor plan. The space is used most efficiently when the floor stairs are stacked exactly on top of each other (right?). It cannot be placed on the gable side, because otherwise only one room would make sense in the attic; placing it all the way at the eaves side doesn’t work either because of the maximum eaves height of 4.10m, the necessary headroom is missing. So it can only somehow be placed in the middle of the footprint. However, this again takes away some design freedom for the rest of the house.
Variant 2 is possible with 10 x 10m, but the rooms would probably be somewhat small (children’s rooms partially 11m² living space, office 9m² also quite tight). The building window allows up to 10 x 14m. Increasing width or depth would probably be the quick and easy solution to the problem, but probably also the most expensive one.
Our general contractor said that creating living space in the attic is relatively inexpensive because you already have the attic anyway. That sounds logical. Are there any contradictory experiences here in the forum?
Although the general contractor has implemented all our wishes in one floor plan, we are not completely happy in several places; somehow it still doesn’t quite fit.
For an overview, here is a section from the development plan. The property is roughly within the red marking.
And here is a draft of the floor plan:
Development Plan/Restrictions
Size of the plot: 499m²
Slope: no
Floor area ratio: 0.4
Floor space index: n.a.
Building window, building line and boundary line: line 3m behind the planned street, building window depth 14m
Edge development: garages/carports allowed
Number of parking spaces: on the plot
Number of floors: max. 2 full floors
Roof shape: gable roof
Style: single-family house or duplex
Orientation: eaves side to the street
Maximum heights/limits ridge height max. 4.10m; roof ridge max. 10.0m; roof pitch 35-45°
Other requirements
Requirements of the builders
Style, roof shape, building type: solid house with clinker brick, gable roof, single-family house
Basement, floors: no basement; ground floor, upper floor, possibly attic
Number of persons, ages: 4-5, 36, 33, 3, 1, ?
Room requirements ground floor, upper floor
Office: family use or home office? Home office, but if possible also a small "retreat" with 2-person couch, table + TV
Overnight guests per year: not relevant
Open or closed architecture. see above
Conservative or modern construction. According to our needs; whether this is conservative or modern, no idea.
Open kitchen, cooking island, open, no cooking island
Number of dining places: 6; with the option to extend for guests (extendable table)
Fireplace: no
Music/stereo wall: yes, ideally space for 5.1 system
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: garage 4.5 x 9m
Utility garden, greenhouse? Strawberries, tomatoes, some herbs, otherwise terrace and lawn for children’s playground
Other wishes/special features/daily routine, also reasons why this or that should or shouldn’t be
House design
Who designed it: -planner from a construction company
What do you particularly like? Why? See below.
What do you not like? Why? See below.
Price estimate according to architect/planner: an earlier draft was around 315k€; I estimate we are already somewhat higher here.
Personal price limit for the house, incl. equipment: 350k€
Favored heating technology: ground source heat pump with drilling or loop collector (but because of plot size difficult, probably drilling).
Photovoltaics planned, but in addition to the budget mentioned above.
If you had to do without, which details/expansions
-you could do without:
dormer
side entrance from the garage to the utility room
developed attic if the rooms are arranged differently.
-you cannot do without:
3 children’s rooms, office
Why is the design as it is now?
e.g. standard design from the planner? Designed for us, with suggestions and sketches from our side.
Which wishes were implemented by the architect? see above.
What makes it particularly good or bad in your eyes?
Some things just don’t fit quite right. The quarter-turned staircase on the upper floor takes up space, making the hallway quite large. The dressing area for the master bedroom can be used poorly despite the dormer because there is simply no place to put a larger wardrobe. We are not sure whether the "L" in the living and dining area is drawn too long, so it feels like a corridor. Our wishes were implemented, but it is difficult for us to imagine whether the rooms, as they are, are practical in their proportions and shapes.
What is the most important/fundamental question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?
Maybe we are too set in our ideas and can no longer imagine other room arrangements. There are many experiences here in the forum about what works and what doesn’t. Maybe with the suggestions here we can create a floor plan that is more consistent overall and that we like better.
Many thanks in advance for this.