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If you don't mind a flat ceiling in the corridor/study/bathroom area then you could easily create an insulated loft space there and potentially use it as a proper plant room (take back the space allocated at the end of the building). You can get horizontal HW tanks for difficult spaces but I would avoid those if possible as they don't stratify the water as well. Downside is getting things in and out of there but if you plan for that then it's a solvable problem (nice big access hatch with a strong point above to mount a hoist is belt and braces) Using that loft space as plant room would also centralise the MHVR pipework which will make things easier and cheaper.

It's going to depend a lot on individual circumstances. I suspect you use relatively less water than others and you also have a long, inefficient, pipe run to the heat pump that adds loss when switching between space heat and DHW.

I'm feeling too lazy to try and draw this. But if you made the master 3m wide then you would have room to rotate the wardrobes 90 degrees so the doors face the bed. That would give you room to expand the bathroom. I think overall that gives much better proportions to the master suite. I'd also be tempted to switch the second bathroom/bedroom. That would mean the bulk of plumbing could be centralised. Ideally, I'd want the hot water tank to be co-located there to minimise pipe runs for hot water. The current location for the plant room is ideal for the ashp but not much else. A more central location would make various runs easier but I'd guess that central space is more valuable as is. I think @Square Feet mentioned some reasons not to do this earlier. I'm not sure either way, there might be a 3rd option. However, will point out that by doing as you propose there is the potential for the 'corridor' from the front door to act as space around the dining table (double duty) that might allow room for the bathroom/study given the expansion of the master.

I think there are two main reasons for the location as close to meter as possible. 1. If you are doing work (like moving a consumer unit) then you might be changing all the wiring all the way back to the meter so that's where you need the isolator 2. If you need to isolate a fault then you need to be able to isolate as much cabling as possible (too many instances of people drilling through a cable between the meter and the CU (there is a short distance limit before you need armoured cable but still). New rules mean battery systems will need an external, accessible, fire switch if not now then soon (and this one has to be visible from a distance). That means there will be another external switch that a nefarious person could flip. Often these switches are fitted by default when a meter upgrade is done so it's not just new builds. Many electricians will recommend getting the DNO to fit one vs paying the DNO to come isolate the system for an electrical project as it's easier and less disruption (possibly less cost) to do it that way. They do but I think there is still a periodic physical inspection. But yes, the need for external meters is less now, but that's not the reason for an external isolator I think external connection points are here to stay.

Since Grenfell the demand for fire safety work has skyrocketed and AFAIK there is a huge shortage of qualified people to do it. Bit of a shit situation all round. Sorry, I know that doesn't really help solve your problem.

Of course. For some reason I missed/forgot that! Cool. A challenge indeed but if you are up for it then they will no doubt look great!

Any alarm system worth it's salt has a backup battery to avoid that situation. Plenty of the modern cameras can be got with batteries too, or if powered by POE you get a small UPS for the POE switch. You are more likely to suffer a power cut than someone intentionally switching off the power for nefarious reasons so having battery backup for some vital things is the logical thing to do if this is a concern even if you don't have the switch. We've had exterior water and gas shut off valves for a very long time. It's an historical quirk that it's only recently become standard to have an electrical isolator (though some meters have had a built in isolation method for a while, though maybe not as obvious to the observer). If you really want to shut yourself off then put up walls and gates around the property. Maybe you are supposed to enable accessibility by the DNO at all times but they are very unlikely to do anything about it if they visit and find a locked gate (other than ring the bell to gain access).

Yes they could but what's the chances of that? Being able to shut off the supply to the consumer unit is a great advantage. Saves an electrician having to call out the DNO (and the charges) if they need to do something big to the consumer unit.

650mm might be ok, but still seems tight. I think if you want to design for accessibility you need more like 800mm. Given the space you are working with (and other areas of seemingly big open space) I think I'd personally want to use some of that space here. Maybe model it and see how things fit. Even if you need all that space, I would be tempted to shift the whole room right to create more space in the master. Another thing to consider is whether making this room wider but not as long would work (needs shifting other things around but I think you have potential to do it if you want). You mean external symmetry? For symmetry inside, I was thinking you'd put a window in line with the bedroom one at the other end of the building. So theres a continuous path through the building (if you leave the bedroom door open). But you also have kitchen island/wall in the way (even if needed for roof support it can likely be altered to accommodate this). Basically I like the idea but I think there is potential to improve it. I mentioned Noah Daniel before, he has a couple of floor plans where he's done this and the before/after from sometimes very minor changes is amazing. Does this clear things up? Not sure I'm getting across my thoughts. Dining tables come in lots of sizes (even for the same number of people). Obviously you want something that feels roomy but just worth bearing in mind that a different table might feel different. If they have bench seating (as in the drawing) that will close things in even more. The layouts are very different. I like yours more but I still get the feeling it can be further improved. Obviously it comes down to personal taste. As you have it is good for welcome guests as a wow factor but will be less good if you get unwelcome people at your door. Those you might not want seeing everything. To be clear I'm not saying you need a whole private lobby area, but think about ways of creating a bit more privacy if you want it. Ok, here I have some further thoughts. If you are on a limited budget then you might really want to think about your windows. If you stick to standard size glass then the glass is cheap and the frames are expensive. Your long narrow windows have a lot of frame to glass. If you go over about 1x2.4m then glass starts to get expensive, as does installation and handling it (it also increases the cost of the frames as they have to support the weight). Additionally, you have windows down the floor. The detailing of this will be more tricky to make look good. If you are doing all this yourself then might well be worth it for the look but if you are paying people to do it then it's an expensive look, especially as you are doing it on every window. Stepping back, part of the design of a new build is to place the property on the land. I know you've been shy about the plot details for good reasons but maybe it's worth sharing a little more (even vague outlines) to see if the plot offers opportunities?

Might come back with more thoughts later but these are things that spring to mind on first look: 1. If your master bed is 2000mm long (larger/european beds are often this length) then you only have 639mm of walking room around the end of it. Seems tight. 2. Relatedly, bed 2 seems disproportionate. What are you going to do with that space at the end of the bed? 3. Linked to point 1, both beds appear to be the same size. If they aren't already king/super king size then consider making the allocated space in the master suitable for that (even if you don't initially want a bed that big). Thinking mainly of window positions as that can't change later. Having said that, I like your positioning of the window centralised to the central corridor. That's a nice feature so keep that. 4. On that central corridor you may consider whether that flow through should continue (or be intentionally interrupted). What you have now seems neither. 5. Living/Kitchen/Diner doesn't sit quite right to me. Not sure why yet but keep juggling options here. 6. Front door opening direct onto the living space as currently seems a bit suboptimal. Not sure there's a better option but as with 5, playing with things may open up options. Stepping back and only regurgitating what I've read others say on here, consider how far you want to go into the details before speaking to an architect. If you are working on a tight budget and plan to spend minimum on architects (ie, more a arch-tech not architect) then go ahead and do as much yourself, but if you want to engage a proper architect then spending too much time now may artificially limit the options available to the architect. I'm sure there are lots of similar channels out there but I've found the 'fixing floorplans' videos made by Noah Daniel to be fairly inspiring with lots of good ideas how to make a great space. Maybe take a look. https://www.youtube.com/@noahdaniel.studio

Glad you did it though? It looks good to me!

Or find a barn. I've fallen down the rabbit hole of watching people build boats on Youtube recently and while you can build a boat in little more than a makeshift tent, it would be a much easier experience if you have a inside space to do it in. Better still if you can maintain a level of environmental control (especially if working with resins). Having said all that, building a boat, even a smallish one, is a very long term commitment in both time and money and you'd likely be a lot better off if you just bought a second hand boat that suites your needs (I'm sure you know this but worth saying anyway).

Usually agree with this on background visual things but I'd guess that @Super_Paulie gets a warm fuzzy satisfied feeling quite frequently over the years. Partly cos of looks, but also the achievement of achieving such a nice looking result. Will be interesting if guests notice, would expect not, but 'unusual but neat looking' things can sometimes get attention.

The formwork is really just a short cut/timesaver. It's the engineering that really matters. I had thought that some raft suppliers give you the choice of just using them for the engineering or for both that and the formwork. Where rafts are more common I believe that using the precut XPS formwork is still not the norm with most making it from 100mm sheet.

First, don't panic! I think this is an easy option. The AFT forms are just a way to make the concrete laying easy, producing the same shape with standard (correct spec) XPS should be fine. Maybe reinforce with wooden forms on the outside if not sure of the glue strength. If you look at people in Sweden laying these types of foundations they don't necessarily use preformed XPS anyway, just build up from sheet.