Which floor plan is better? (Single-family house 170 sqm) - Feedback wanted

Hello everyone,

we are currently planning our house and have developed two different floor plans together with the planner of a construction company, which mainly differ in the position of the staircase.

We would be very happy to know which of the designs you would prefer and why? We would also be very grateful for comments and suggestions for improvement with which we can optimize the floor plans a little more.

Floor plan 1: Staircase directly next to the door

Advantages:

[*]Good shape for the utility room
[*]More space in the rooms in the attic
[*]Space for a storage room in the attic

Disadvantages:

[*]Door directly next to the front door seems rather unspectacular

Floor plan 2: Staircase more centrally located in the house

Advantages:

[*]Individual and "special" entrance area with gallery with a small open space in the attic
[*]Wardrobe in the hallway

Disadvantages:

[*]More circulation area in the attic
[*]Elongated utility room
[*]No storage room
[*]Dressing room has worse furnishing options
[*]Rooms in the attic become a bit narrower

On these points we are still unsure:

[*]Would you leave the door between the hallway and kitchen? Groceries can be carried directly into the kitchen this way, but without the door you would have considerably more space for furniture.

[*]In the current floor plans the passage between hallway and dining room is open. How do you assess this opening from a noise perspective? Should we rather build a wall/door here?

[*]Would you add part of the area from the guest room/office to the living room as in design 2 ground floor, or does this additional corner disturb the furnishing too much?

[*]Wardrobe in floor plan 2: We are considering leaving out the front wall and only putting a closet in the niche and having a somewhat more spacious hallway. On the other hand, it is also practical to have the wardrobe somewhat out of sight.

Notes:

[*]One version includes a balcony, the other does not. We are still unsure about this, but it does not affect the staircase solution.
[*]The furnishing in the kitchen is not drawn correctly. We want to add a counter with stools here.

We would really appreciate your opinions!

Many thanks and best regards

Anna & Thomas

Development plan/restrictions
Size of the plot: 495 sqm
Number of floors: I + attic (attic may be developed as a full floor)
Roof shape: gable roof
Orientation: west
Maximum height/limits: 8.30 m
Client requirements
Basement, floors: no basement, single-story (knee wall 1.20 m)
Number of people, age: currently 3 people (38, 33 and 1), planning for 4 people
Open or closed architecture: semi-open
Open kitchen, kitchen island: kitchen and dining area connected by a wide sliding door (around the corner to the living room) – wish not to be able to see the kitchen from the couch

The stepped layout of the first draft has acoustic advantages. You can talk downstairs with guests without the children upstairs being unable to sleep. How often do you have guests? If you calculate it like this, it is not worth building a guest room and it is better to treat the guests to a hotel...

The staircase layout of the first draft has acoustic advantages. You can talk with guests downstairs without the children upstairs being disturbed. How often do you have guests? If you calculate it, it might not be worth building a guest room and instead treat the guests to a hotel...

However, the guest room is also used as a hobby room/office. Somewhere the craft supplies and file folders have to be stored. In my opinion, the common room does not need additional floor space.

How will the house be oriented on the plot?

Where is north?

I don't like any floor plan

I don't like the staircase in the first floor plan - it has something of a post-war settlement house

Floor plan 2 - the staircase location, the gallery, the open space

Different staircase and location

Also, we would be very grateful for comments and suggestions for improvements with which we can optimize the floor plans a little more.

I rather do not expect gratitude, as my suggestion for improvement is radical – it is: to plan anew. "Optimize" implies that a condition of "satisfactory with tendency towards good" has already been achieved. Here I see rather the opposite: to break down space into room compartmentalizations like a pig into cutlets, I find too pretentious a term for "floor plan." The planner seems to lack a sense of space, so unfortunately she can offer little help to the client. What made this construction company appear suitable to you?

The closet door banging against the wall, the attic hallway illuminated from below through the airspace, the L-shaped utility room, the bathtub completely below full standing height, etcetera, oh dear, sorry, this is still far from ripe for optimization.

Try the cheap trick of omitting the bay window – and you will see that as if by magic the living room entrance suddenly works without being angled :-)

Hello everyone,

thanks first of all for the feedback!

The stair position of the first draft has acoustic advantages. You can talk downstairs with guests without the children upstairs being unable to sleep.
How often do you have guests? If you calculate it, it might not be worth building a guest room and you could just pay for the guests to stay in a hotel...

-> Family and old friends of my husband live in Bavaria. We would like to offer them the possibility to stay with us. Additionally, the room should be used as an office for home office.

: The side with the bay window faces west. We are considering placing the house in the northeast corner of the plot with 3m to the property boundary on each side, to have as much space as possible towards the south and west.

Where is north?

I don’t like any floor plan

I don’t like the staircase in the first floor plan – it’s reminiscent of an economic miracle settlement house

Floor plan 2 – the stair position, the gallery, the loft space

Different staircase and position

: Do you have a suggestion? We discussed the floor plan with planners/architects from different companies and no good idea has come up yet.

the attic corridor illuminated from below through the loft space

-> Do you see the problem here that there is no daylight in the stairwell?

Try the cheap trick of leaving out the bay window – and you will see that, as if by magic, the living room entrance works suddenly without an angle :)

We like a bay window very much visually. We didn’t like a straight living room entrance because we didn’t want the entrance directly next to the TV.
What would you fundamentally change? If we stick to the location of the kitchen, dining, and living room, there isn’t much room for maneuver in the remaining rooms.

Many thanks and best regards Anna