Critique my Design?

[puntloos]

Hey all, 

 

As you might remember - Critique my Brief was received with some mixed thoughts, although our Architect was really enthusiastic about what we provided to her. (or at least she pretended to be )

We have received her initial designs, and based on this, we have extended our own design and put a lot of extra detail in there. Please note that I've spent next to 0 effort on picking 'the right' objects, e.g. lamp shades, hobs, paintings, materials for walls etc. Core thing to focus on is the shape and location of things.

 

Would love to hear opinions. What do you think, in particular which things will never work, and which things should be really good?

 

I've used a pretty cool presentation system for this - Focusky is free (up to a point, but I've only used the free version so far). It allows me to talk over stuff, give some commentary, then upload to the cloud for free.. and people can zoom around themselves too! It's pretty nifty. 

 

http://focusky.com/zcxt/kgig/?html5. (click away the right side-bar!)

 

Final tip, the final slide (click bottom right) contains a ton of extra stuff, incl some renders, and the written summary for the various spots.

 

[UPDATE]: reconciled many of the points & thoughts in a followup message

 

 

Edited December 11, 2019 by puntloos

[MikeSharp01]

Hard to see it all on a phone - looks good like the low wall betwern dinning area and sitting room. My comment is about the angled zone at the end of the kitchen with the window. I wonder if it is really useful and the shape feels awkward although I guess it is a feature and we don't all want to live in square buildings, maybe look at squaring it off and making it the same depth as the 1st floor to reduce complexity. 

[puntloos]

25 minutes ago, MikeSharp01 said:

Hard to see it all on a phone - looks good like the low wall betwern dinning area and sitting room. My comment is about the angled zone at the end of the kitchen with the window. I wonder if it is really useful and the shape feels awkward although I guess it is a feature and we don't all want to live in square buildings, maybe look at squaring it off and making it the same depth as the 1st floor to reduce complexity. 

 

Thanks Mike, the angled part was indeed a point of contention earlier, but it has 'slightly meaningful' size at this point, and indeed the sun leaves our house at about 15:30, but leaves this space considerably later I'd say..

[puntloos]

Anyone? Anyone? @Sensus, @Carrerahill, @Bueller? 

Is the link problematic or not working?

 

Ground:

- Note that the uplighters are just scattered evenly, no deep thought went into them

- The first part of garage likely to be a carport

 

1st (but a lot less developed..)

 

note that the walkway above the office gives a surprising amount of spacious feel to it. Is there some science to when a hallway feels 'grand'? My hunch is that the amount of distance between most high walls is the key thing. if we remove the dead end walkway because it's "useless" it feels much less nice..

 

 

 

 

[NSS]

As I've said before, not keen on critiquing others' designs but got to comment on the front door / foot of staircase. Imho they're far too close and you (and guests) will be regularly tripping over the bottom step as you/they walk through the front door.

[puntloos]

16 minutes ago, NSS said:

As I've said before, not keen on critiquing others' designs

Thanks @NSS, to be honest that's exactly the type of feedback I am looking for, pieces of design that do not make sense. 

As an example, the 'coffee machine area' to the left of the big hallway door is really an artifact of me trying to both make the garage fit an actual car, as well as trying to have a pocket door.. problem: bifolding door between kitchen and dining could block it.

 

16 minutes ago, NSS said:

but got to comment on the front door / foot of staircase. Imho they're far too close and you (and guests) will be regularly tripping over the bottom step as you/they walk through the front door.

 

Not completely sure what you mean though, are you saying if they step inside their foot might 'snag' onto the staircase and trip?

 

To be clear, the design as attached is mine, where we like a lot of the principles, but we have asked our Architect to convert it into something 'professionally done' and fixing any mistakes. Your comment is def. something the Arch should hopefully fix, but good for me to be aware of it already..

Edited December 4, 2019 by puntloos

[NSS]

5 minutes ago, puntloos said:

Not completely sure what you mean though, are you saying if they step inside their foot might 'snag' onto the staircase and trip?

 

Yep, that's exactly what I mean. As you walk 'around' the opening door the bottom step becomes a trip hazard. Also, if someone happens to be taking the last few steps down as someone else opens the front door.....

 

It's something I'd definitely want to 'fix' ?

[epsilonGreedy]

I think this large 2600? sq ft design has too many features with excess space sub division in the front half and this leads to a compromised entrance hall as identified by @NSS

My previous house 1400 sq ft had more flow space between front door and bottom stairs step and I thought that was compromised even for 4 bed house squeezed into 1400 sq ft. The double height of your hall will help overcome the foot print problem to some extent, the 3D hall projection is very appealing. 

 

I like to see a pantry but the space is not used well because it doubles as a corridor. I would loose the dumb waiter unless this is a key life style need and dispense with the hall to pantry door unless this is a fire egress planning building regs thing here. Even so the downstairs toilet needs an extra foot in length pinched from the pantry.

 

A single parking space is a major problem for a property of this size. Think of people visiting and children growing up and learning to drive. Ask an estate agent how problematic this would be.

 

The house looks too large for the plot, are planning ok with this or is it the done thing in a city location?

 

I like the flow in the main living area, very trendy and the nook should work when the cook needs a five minute rest.

 

Your screen in the study will suffer reflections from the window behind, think about angling the desk around the corner.

Edited December 5, 2019 by epsilonGreedy

[puntloos]

1 hour ago, epsilonGreedy said:

I think this large 2600? sq ft has too many features with excess space sub division in the front half

Not a bad point, yes 2600sqft, which was what a few estate agents suggested.. the plot is really central village, and is 'reasonably' appropriate.. we prefer it a little smaller to be honest but didn't want to compromise important rooms too much.

 

At the front, we have:

 

- 4.5x3 utility, which is reallyreally ample

- 4x3 office, not terrible?

- 2.7x3.2 play area connected to main living.. 

 

Which ones do you consider too cramped, or too subdivided?

 

 

Quote

and this leads to a compromised entrance hall as identified by @NSS

He (she?) was probably quite right the stairs need a slightly different design but currently they are really flat. To be clear though, one might claim that my house design is trying to incorporate  'design features of luxury houses' (double-height entrance halls, large open plan living etc) into a constrained footprint.. such is life in the inner city?

 

Quote

My previous house 1400 sq ft had more flow space between front door and bottom stairs step

It's an important point to get right I think, so will make sure to mention it to architect!

 

Quote

and I thought that was compromised even for 4 bed house squeezed into 1400 sq ft. The double height of your hall will help overcome the foot print problem to some extent, the 3D hall projection is very appealing. 

 

tx.. I hope the arch can make it work in the final design

Quote

I like to see a pantry but the space is not used well because it doubles as a corridor. I would loose the dumb waiter unless this is a key life style need

If I haven't already I was planning to start a topic on the use of a dumbwaiter. 

 

Corridor> yeah it's an interesting one, given kids with different lifestyle than us I could imagine we would want to be able to sneak into the kitchen for supplies while the 'other party' watched a movie. But it's a bit of a limited use case and not a massive deal. Agreed the pantry is tiny, frankly it was mostly because I'm a poor designer and didn't really know what to do with the space

 

Quote

 

and dispense with the hall to pantry door unless this is a fire egress planning building regs thing here.

Will suggest it, I think it indeed might not be worth including, it was mostly my wife's feature request.

Quote

 

Even so the downstairs toilet needs an extra foot in length pinched from the pantry.

 

Ah, didn't know there were specific numbers there.. I'm assuming arch will handle that..

 

Quote

A single parking space is a major problem for a property of this size. Think of people visiting and children growing up and learning to drive. Ask an estate agent how problematic this would be.

 

Well there's room for 3 cars on the property, which is what our regs ask for - but you'd probably need to cut away the hedge and/or allow one car to block in the others. Pretty common in the local area (london-style space constraints..)

Quote

The house looks too large for the plot, are planning ok with this or is it the done thing in a city location?

 

Done thing

Quote

 

I like the flow in the main living area, very trendy and the nook should work when the cook needs a five minute rest.

 

That's what I'm hoping.. thanks! By 'flow' do you also mean the architectural 'break' in the house? Or more just the sort-of S-shape?
 

Quote

Your screen in the study will suffer reflections from the window behind, think about angling the desk around the corner.

Fair point, I guess the core reason for the current design is that the office was intended to double as a 'retreat room' for parents (with a good TV and surround sound) if the kid has friends over..

 

 

Thanks a ton for your detailed points!

Edited December 5, 2019 by puntloos

[Carrerahill]

13 hours ago, puntloos said:

Anyone? Anyone? @Sensus, @Carrerahill, @Bueller? 

Is the link problematic or not working?

 

Watching it now, been away almost every night for last week and a half.

[Carrerahill]

On 30/11/2019 at 03:57, puntloos said:

Hey all, 

 

As you might remember - Critique my Brief was received with some mixed thoughts, although our Architect was really enthusiastic about what we provided to her. (or at least she pretended to be )

We have received her initial designs, and based on this, we have extended our own design and put a lot of extra detail in there. Please note that I've spent next to 0 effort on picking 'the right' objects, e.g. lamp shades, hobs, paintings, materials for walls etc. Core thing to focus on is the shape and location of things.

 

Would love to hear opinions. What do you think, in particular which things will never work, and which things should be really good?

 

I've used a pretty cool presentation system for this - Focusky is free (up to a point, but I've only used the free version so far). It allows me to talk over stuff, give some commentary, then upload to the cloud for free.. and people can zoom around themselves too! It's pretty nifty. 

 

http://focusky.com/zcxt/kgig/?html5. (click away the right side-bar!)

 

Final tip, the final slide (click bottom right) contains a ton of extra stuff, incl some renders, and the written summary for the various spots.

 

Take a look, let me know!

 

 

I like it, only comments for me would be, however you did touch on this, to make the garage a little longer and make it a usable garage, with the space you have for a utility room and a sneak pantry I'd think you could turn over more space to the garage, for me a garage is more important, but then I have a classic car and work on it and have tools and whatnot that need a home. 

 

Why don't you put a small toilet into your office? Common thing to have a little private office loo, I know when I am working late, or sitting on this forum a little loo I could get to without going into the main body of the house would be advantageous, it also means if you are working from home etc. and your family are about the main house you can take yourself away to your own little empire.

 

Make sure the wall between play and office areas are well soundproofed. Happy children is a great noise, but when happy children become happy screeching children it does distract from work! 

 

I like the master bedroom "suite" you have created. 

 

Well done - I like the presentation style too, your narration makes it all very easy to digest.

 

 

[epsilonGreedy]

3 minutes ago, Carrerahill said:

I like the master bedroom "suite" you have created. 

 

 

Lower/upper left? Is this the master bedroom suite?

 

If so then a 4 bed 2600 sq ft house that features a master bedroom with difficult access to one side of the bed is surely a design black mark?

 

On the point of the master bed suite entrance door, I would step it back 600mm left to create some balance to the view of the landing gallery when viewed from the hall. I also think it would create some layout mystery was a visitor's eye ponders "what is around that corner".

[Carrerahill]

1 minute ago, epsilonGreedy said:

 

Lower/upper left? Is this the master bedroom suite?

 

If so then a 4 bed 2600 sq ft house that features a master bedroom with difficult access to one side of the bed is surely a design black mark?

 

On the point of the master bed suite entrance door, I would step it back 600mm left to create some balance to the view of the landing gallery when viewed from the hall. I also think it would create some layout mystery was a visitor's eye ponders "what is around that corner".

All his beds seem to be against or very close to walls, I assumed they were just for indicative purposes and not necessarily final furniture layouts.  

 

I'd put the bed in the middle, headboard opposite the window so the bed was facing the window. 

[Mr Punter]

In no particular order:

 

The front door canopy is far too small to provide shelter.

The WC will need an outward door for part M which will clash with front door.

The WC window seem enormous.  Waste of energy.

Stairs need a rethink.

Not keen on the office door being under the stairs and clashing with the other door.

wtf is "SECRET" all about?!!

It may be difficult to mount the consumer units on the pocket walls.  Maybe put them somewhere less focal.

Why have a dumb waiter? I have one but I have a four storey house with the kitchen on the top floor.

Loads of wasted space in the "ADD'L UTILITY"

I assume the garage is bikes / motorbikes / bins?

Make sure you have enough storage in the kitchen.

There is a large amount of glazing which may be an issue for privacy, comfort, heat loss, solar gain and cost.

I think the upstairs needs another en-suite shower.

 

[NSS]

34 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

wtf is "SECRET" all about?!!

 

 

? ?

[puntloos]

18 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

In no particular order:

 

The front door canopy is far too small to provide shelter.

I was wondering about the canopy, is it included in the planning permissions etc (since we are required to fit in line with the other houses we can't move too much stuff forward..

 

18 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

The WC will need an outward door for part M which will clash with front door.

Ah, very good to know.

 

18 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

The WC window seem enormous.  Waste of energy.

 

Fair.

18 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

Stairs need a rethink.

 

Yes, hopefully our Arch can make it work.

 

18 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

Not keen on the office door being under the stairs and clashing with the other door.

 

Agreed, perhaps there's a better way to solve this. I was gently assuming that with the limited product I'm using all kinds of tolerances of stair angles etc are so loose that once we do this 'professionally' it would be resolved.

 

18 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

wtf is "SECRET" all about?!!

 

Ha, as I noted in the comments it's mostly I didn't know what to do with the space

 

18 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

It may be difficult to mount the consumer units on the pocket walls.  Maybe put them somewhere less focal.

 

Interesting point, hadn't thought of that.

 

18 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

Why have a dumb waiter? I have one but I have a four storey house with the kitchen on the top floor.

 

Yeah I really need to start a discussion there. - Done - Dumbwaiters

18 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

Loads of wasted space in the "ADD'L UTILITY"

 

Well the intended usage was storing largeish stuff, as well as hanging laundry. (plus of course the option to create a garage)

 

18 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

I assume the garage is bikes / motorbikes / bins?

 

Yes, bikes/bins primarily. Stroller for the kid for a while

 

18 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

Make sure you have enough storage in the kitchen.

You think it looks limited?

 

18 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

There is a large amount of glazing which may be an issue for privacy, comfort, heat loss, solar gain and cost.

 

You're primarily talking about the living room? Or overall?

 

Livingroom wise, our main idea was to make sure the glazing was covered by awnings both for the privacy/comfort (solar gain) parts.

Heat loss wise.. I was hoping glazing would be fairly good nowadays. 

Cost.. mm.. fair point I'm sure, I guess we will look at that once we need to start comprimising after recovering from the shock at the price tag of the current design.. 

 

18 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

I think the upstairs needs another en-suite shower.

For the kids' room? We were debating suchlike.. for our own purposes the current is fine, but I guess for a house of this particular 'caliber' it might be warranted..

 

 

Thank you for your comments so far!

[puntloos]

4 hours ago, Carrerahill said:

 

Watching it now, been away almost every night for last week and a half.

 

Cheers, sorry didn't mean to sound pushy  in general this forum is quite lively so I figured I just call out a few people as a friendly ping

 

4 hours ago, Carrerahill said:

I like it, only comments for me would be, however you did touch on this, to make the garage a little longer and make it a usable garage, with the space you have for a utility room and a sneak pantry I'd think you could turn over more space to the garage, for me a garage is more important, but then I have a classic car and work on it and have tools and whatnot that need a home. 

 

Fair.. as we hinted at here and there we're basically in a "london style" environment where (plot/floor) space is at a massive premium so we are finding ourselves in this constant pressure field of making the best use of what we have. In the case of the garage:

- We don't need a place to store our car indoors. 

- Our main purpose is literally storage, utility, and drying clothes.

 

but.. for resale purposes, people expect a garage, and often feel "cheated" once they notice the garage couldn't fit even a 'smart' car. So we figured creating the possibility of having a proper garage was the right balance. A *proper* garage (4x7m?) doesn't make sense for us I don't think. 

 

4 hours ago, Carrerahill said:

 

Why don't you put a small toilet into your office? Common thing to have a little private office loo, I know when I am working late, or sitting on this forum a little loo I could get to without going into the main body of the house would be advantageous, it also means if you are working from home etc. and your family are about the main house you can take yourself away to your own little empire.

Ha, make it a proper man-cave  - not a terrible idea really. Have the 'chair' in the 'secret' room be a toilet.. 

Will consider.

4 hours ago, Carrerahill said:

 

Make sure the wall between play and office areas are well soundproofed. Happy children is a great noise, but when happy children become happy screeching children it does distract from work! 

 

Good point.

4 hours ago, Carrerahill said:

I like the master bedroom "suite" you have created. 

 

The principle is pretty nice I think, we saw it in one house we viewed before we gave up on buying other people's dreams (that somehow always included low ceilings). The main downside of the design is that we like the option to convert a walk-in closet into a complete new room (moving from 4br to 5). Would need to take care that there's enough clothes storage either way..

 

4 hours ago, Carrerahill said:

Well done - I like the presentation style too, your narration makes it all very easy to digest.

Focusky seems a pretty nice option for 'free'

 

Thanks for your comments, great stuff to think about..

 

[puntloos]

Btw, general question: 

 

What do you guys think about the oversized hallway? We clearly like the 'view' of it, but there's some downsides:
- Privacy: lots of angles to see us moving upstairs, currently not an issue, but they might be planning houses across the street. Are there ways to prevent this in the evening? Shutters I guess?

- Space sacrifice - By my calculations, this hallway uses up about 12.5sqm extra space. (*)

- Noise - All doors are directly connected to the hallway, perhaps with a smaller hallway we could have 'buffers'..

 

(*) a standard, 'cramped' hallway would be 0.6*5 (downstairs, for a standard-straight) + 1.1*5 (the upper deadendwalkway) + 4*1 (upper normal walkway, to be put above the entrance) = 12.5sqm less 

[puntloos]

6 hours ago, epsilonGreedy said:

 

Lower/upper left? Is this the master bedroom suite?

Yes.

Quote

 

If so then a 4 bed 2600 sq ft house that features a master bedroom with difficult access to one side of the bed is surely a design black mark?

 

Black.. surely at least more like a Taupe design mark?

But no this indeed is not quite good enough, I don't know what happened, probably when I put in the dumbwaiter I moved it to the side, but clearly it's required to be able to walk to both sides. I can correct by extending a little.

 

Quote

 

On the point of the master bed suite entrance door, I would step it back 600mm left

Not a bad idea in general

Quote

to create some balance to the view of the landing gallery when viewed from the hall.

Not sure I get this part, since you'd already have to be up the stairs to see even the non-recessed door?

 

Quote

I also think it would create some layout mystery was a visitor's eye ponders "what is around that corner".

 

Like this?

 

 

 

Edited December 5, 2019 by puntloos

[Roundtuit]

7 hours ago, puntloos said:

 

What do you guys think about the oversized hallway? We clearly like the 'view' of it, but there's some downsides:
- Privacy: lots of angles to see us moving upstairs, currently not an issue, but they might be planning houses across the street. Are there ways to prevent this in the evening? Shutters I guess?

- Space sacrifice - By my calculations, this hallway uses up about 12.5sqm extra space. (*)

- Noise - All doors are directly connected to the hallway, perhaps with a smaller hallway we could have 'buffers'..

I like it, but then, we've got one similar!  Our front door opens outwards to avoid any conflict with the stairs, and the front door is only really used for occasional visitors anyway.  I've put in wiring for switchable film on the hall windows in case privacy becomes worth more than £2k.  So far, no complaints or crowds gathering...

[puntloos]

1 hour ago, Roundtuit said:

I like it, but then, we've got one similar!  Our front door opens outwards to avoid any conflict with the stairs, and the front door is only really used for occasional visitors anyway.  I've put in wiring for switchable film on the hall windows in case privacy becomes worth more than £2k.  So far, no complaints or crowds gathering...

Would you be willing to share a few details (perhaps private message) in particular things like photo, floorplan, cost (more or less than if it were occupied space?)

[joth]

8 hours ago, Roundtuit said:

I like it, but then, we've got one similar!  Our front door opens outwards to avoid any conflict with the stairs, and the front door is only really used for occasional visitors anyway.  I've put in wiring for switchable film on the hall windows in case privacy becomes worth more than £2k.  So far, no complaints or crowds gathering...

I didn't know this was available as a retrofit film. Something like this?

https://intelligentglass.net/products/self-adhesive-switchable-smart-film/

 

Any approximate idea on pricing, and what spec cable needed? I'm losing track of all the possibly needed spare wires I might drop into into the window reveals!

 

[Ferdinand]

 

20 hours ago, Mr Punter said:

wtf is "SECRET" all about?!!

 

It's the skeleton cupboard ... ? .

[epsilonGreedy]

20 hours ago, Mr Punter said:

wtf is "SECRET" all about?!!

 

 

I imagine the OP's children are currently young cherubs and anticipates them raiding the cookie jar via the secret pantry's hallway door. My concern is that 12 years later in their late teens the same door will offer access to covert swigs of the household gin bottle. ?

[epsilonGreedy]

17 hours ago, puntloos said:

But no this indeed is not quite good enough, I don't know what happened, probably when I put in the dumbwaiter I moved it to the side, but clearly it's required to be able to walk to both sides. I can correct by extending a little.

 

 

I feel the bed chamber of the master bedroom suite is small relative to the overall scale of the house. If the ceiling is open to the roofline that would help. If I was tweaking the design for my preferences I would dispense with the bed chamber door and have an open aperture, about 50% wider than a standard door, leading to the dressing area.

 

17 hours ago, puntloos said:

Not sure I get this part, since you'd already have to be up the stairs to see even the non-recessed door?

 

Like this?

 

 

My suggestion was based on a projection of the landing when standing at the front door, that image is embedded further up this thread. I remember thinking "interesting semi glazed door leading into the master bedroom suite".

 

Your latest update showing the recessed doorframe is exactly how I imagined it, I feel it provides a balance to the view of the galleried landing because in the update both sides of the landing lead somewhere.

 

In general as houses get smaller there is no opportunity to create any layout mystery, at 1000 sq ft a landing is often windowless and presents a crowed array of doors. At 2600 sq ft and with a few tweaks you are half way towards your own Downton Abbey.