Split-Level Single-Family House Floor Plan - Architect's Design

Hello dear forum,

We are very much looking forward to renovating a settlement house from the 60s. Many thanks for this forum and the great opportunity to share our plan and receive your feedback:

Development plan/restrictions
Plot size: 519 m2
Slope: no
Floor area ratio: 1
Floor space index: 2.5
Building window, building line and boundary: 3m distance to boundary
Edge development: see pictures
Number of parking spaces: 2 or 3
Number of floors: 2.5
Roof shape: gable (old building) and flat roof (new building)
Style: modern
Orientation: south
Maximum heights/limits: see pictures
Other requirements: The house must be completely renovated. It is a single-family house with half floors. We wanted direct access to the garden (on ground level), so our architect recommended an extension for cloakroom, corridor, kitchen and dining room. This extension is planned in timber construction (vertical spruce cladding in black). The living room (accessible from the dining room – 7 steps), toilet, and office are located on the first half floor, then you go up another half floor, where we currently have the master bedroom planned. On this floor there is only this one room. One half floor higher / on the top floor, 2 equally sized children's rooms as well as toilet and bathroom are planned.

Client requirements
Style, roof shape, building type: renovation of old building and extension
Basement, floors: 1 basement and 2.5 floors
Number of persons, age: 2 adults and 2 children (3 and 6 years)
Room requirements on ground floor, upper floor: 150m2
Office: family use or home office? Home office
Number of overnight guests per year: 1-2
Open or closed architecture: open
Conservative or modern construction: modern
Open kitchen, cooking island: open kitchen, cooking island yes
Number of dining places: 8 – 12
Fireplace: yes
Music/stereo wall: not planned
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: 1 carport, former garage as storage room for bicycles, etc.
Utility garden, greenhouse: no
Further wishes/special features/daily routine, also reasons why this or that should or should not be:

House design
Who designed the plan: architect

What do you particularly like? Why?
- Single-family house can be preserved (inherited from grandma)
- Ground level garden access very well solved
- Good floor plan concept and a unique idea – no run-of-the-mill floor plan
- Open space kitchen/dining room and living room with 7 steps – possibly the entrance could be raised and for example only 5 steps into the living room. Do we need fall protection and if so, what kind?
- Generous spaces, especially in the living area
- Children's room orientation and size
- Generally generous spaces in basement, toilet and office

What do you not like? Why?
- Unsure if kitchen/dining room/living room is open and communal enough and if the steps are annoying in everyday life
- Unsure about the window/glass front in dining/kitchen and size of kitchen/dining room
- Terrace planning: dining place was planned by the architect in the west, but rather narrow. Unsure about the 2m terrace in the south, what do we really place here? All covered?
- Still unsure how the extension will look visually (old building facade white, wooden-aluminum windows in black, extension modern timber construction with vertical spruce cladding in black)
- Unsure about the corridor between cloakroom and kitchen – without door (according to architect no door visually, as the view and walking direction should lead into the dining room, not to the upper floor)
- Planning of bathroom and toilet on upper floor – possibly toilet into bathroom and convert the room (without window by the way) into a closet – master bedroom on half floor does not allow a very large closet

Price estimate according to architect/planner: 600-800k
Personal price limit for the house, including fittings: 800k
Preferred heating technology: geothermal heat pump

Why is the design as it is now? For example:
This is the 2nd design. In the first design, there was no glass front on the south side, only windows and instead a comfortable seating bench. But since the view and living is towards the main garden here, we also wanted an access here and it was changed to a complete glass front. Due to heat development, the architect recommended a roof overhang of 1.20m, which we had widened to 2m.

Thank you very much from my side for your input! Questions anytime!

1st design:



Revised design:

I am linking to the original thread
https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/stufen-zwischen-kueche-esszimmer-und-wohnzimmer.49629/

Do we need a fall protection and what kind?

I think glass would be nice for you. Then the kids can happily smear on it ;)
But I think it fits the look and the desire to see through.

I would leave out the balcony.

I’m linking to the original thread
https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/stufen-zwischen-kueche-esszimmer-und-wohnzimmer.49629/

I think glass would look nice for you. The kids can then nicely smear on it ;)
But I think it fits the look and the desire for transparency.

I would omit the balcony.

Thanks for the answer.
Yes, we considered glass, then you can see each other but not really communicate (maybe also an advantage :-D),

The balcony was in the old building and will be removed.

I am missing the previous discussion but what I see pleases me. The stepped solution is something special. I also agree with the note about increasing the floor height to 240cm in the extension, so you don’t have to look against the ceiling. The mentioned glass wall is probably meant as a separation between living and cooking, right? I could also imagine a 1/3-high wall or a fixed, wide piece of furniture (shelf or similar) as a divider, to really keep the whole area open, or a ceiling-high, open partition, e.g. with stylish wooden slats, a modern construction or similar (there are no limits to imagination here), but glass would still be too “separating” for me here. For the small bathroom upstairs, I might place the shower lengthwise and put the toilet + sink on one side. In the large bathroom, the door should open the other way or better be redesigned. The bathtub, which is probably used less frequently, takes up a lot of space that could be used just for bathing; here too I would try the shower lengthwise and partially push the tub into the remaining corner, so there would be more space inside. These are just rough thoughts and maybe you have already gone through all of this. All in all, with tasteful furnishing, this can become a house with a very special living feeling – I like it!

Yes, we considered glass, then you can see each other but not really communicate (maybe also an advantage :-D),

Why can't you communicate? It only has a parapet height. If someone calls from the sofa, it can be heard in the kitchen and vice versa. Instead of glass as a parapet element, you can also use wooden slats from top to bottom. As writes

TE probably meant floor-to-ceiling glass, that's how I understood it too, so the kids can finally paint big pictures...... Glass railing without visible brackets would also be very stylish, then there shouldn't be a display case or something similar in front of it. Whatever, it can turn out nice.