Site planning on a gentle slope with filling

Is there a reason why you want to build up so high? You could also go deeper with the house...

We are planning to start building the house this year with a general contractor, the positioning of the building on the plot is fixed, currently we are waiting for the building permit. [...]
What do you think is sensible and economical in this situation?

What else could be sensible when the permit is already on the table?

Nevertheless, just out of curiosity:

According to the soil report, approximately 50cm of topsoil must be removed, below that the soil is load-bearing. It should be filled with frost protection material up to the average street level, so that the top edge of the finished floor should be about 20cm above the street.
Due to the slope in the middle part, the fill behind the house is about 1.8m above the current ground level, afterwards according to the soil report, the fill should be graded at a 45° angle or retained by a retaining wall.

If two meters thirty below the mountainside ground level is load-bearing soil, why didn’t they put a basement there???

I would design the plot in several terraces running parallel to the house. The raised beds and flower borders can be integrated into the retaining walls. Back-friendly and the gray of the walls is partially covered. The part that currently contains the 4 raised beds without care will become [Blumen/Spielwiese].

Otherwise, we would be lower than both neighbors, and we had concerns about future heavy rain... maybe that's unfounded, then going 30-40cm lower wouldn’t look bad either. But maybe we’ll check again.


We were mainly concerned about the further terrain progression, which was not captured in the building permit and wouldn’t matter as long as we don’t fill over 2m above current ground level.
The basement simply wasn’t financially feasible; the ground floor is designed so that everything is barrier-free accessible, with a space requirement of 125sqm (not living space). Adding a basement would have been significantly more expensive, and we were advised against a partial basement from all sides.
Also, we liked the raised ground better at the neighbor’s than a basement dug into the slope; otherwise, it looks like a tower.


What do you mean by parallel to the house? Starting behind the house with terraced slopes was also considered.
Can something like that be done with formwork blocks, or are L-blocks absolutely necessary?
The uninspired 4 raised beds are because I was unsure about the design myself, there would be more than that :D

The basement simply wouldn’t have been financially feasible,

That is not true whenever, as in this case, the unbuilt basement costs practically the same as a built one. The nonsense with the fillitis will soon be something the municipalities stop approving again. "Soon," considering the sluggishness of political processes, of course ;-)

Serious question, since I don't understand the argument: What advantage do the municipalities actually have if they approve a basement instead of a fill? Apart from the fact that the house can be smaller above ground because some rooms can be moved into the basement. For the street view, I see more of a disadvantage in my case if there is a 1.5m ditch on the left and right side of the house instead of a fill with planting at street level.

Apart from that, municipalities don’t have much left to approve anyway with the current interest rates and construction costs, whether anyone can still afford a basement is questionable :rolleyes:

I should perhaps have mentioned that the earthworks are being done in-house under expert supervision, I know the price for the fill material, a 100sqm basement is far more expensive (for that I roughly calculated 70k-80k€).