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First draft of new build received, what do you think?


Rmawdsley

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Hi,

 

Me and my Fiance will be beginning our new build project in the new year, obviously before that we need to know what we are going to be building. We have received the first draft of the proposed house yesterday and would like to know what you think. I understand a house is subjective and has to work for your lifestyle but i am interested in peoples thoughts and opinions, would you change anything? The plot is long and narrow, about 10.5m wide by 50m long. It is an infill development with a house on each side . I know integral garages compromise air tightness but space is limited. I look forward to hearing your thoughts. 

 

Thanks,

 

Robert

003 - Proposed Elevations - crop.pdf 004 - Proposed Plans - crop.pdf

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The garage is too narrow.  Can you increase the width of the house by say half a metre with most of that adding to the garage width?  Other rooms will benefit.  that should still fit on a 10.5 metre wide plot and allow a path both sides of the house.

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(Please).

 

Sorry - lost further edits.

 

I think the design and concept for the house on this particular plot need some thought - before it gets down to detailed interior thinking. IMO wind back slightly. 

 

I feel that the interior is perhaps better than the exterior, which can't quite decide whether it wasn't to be 70s inspired (front), maximise light 2010s, or more form-follows-function (sides). I think there's perhaps a need for a more unified concept, and some unifying features throughout and perhaps a more interesting overall shape.

 

But I think we need the info I requested above to give more useful feedback.

 

How do you plan to live in this house?

 

F

 

 

Edited by Ferdinand
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Are your plans annotated incorrectly? (Ground and First)

 

 

The garage internals are larger than that of my original 1980s house, and no doubt exceed what is common place today. 
 

Do you intend to store a vehicle in there? (Sounds like an odd question but we all know many people use a garage purely for storage)

Edited by dangti6
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Ferdinand, I have attached the location plan so you can see where it is sat on the plot. The existing building that is on the plot is a black timber shed that has been in the family for 70-80 years hence why the timber has been added by the architect. I am still unsure as to whether I like the idea of it or not.

 

dangti you are correct! The plan has been annotated incorrectly, it should be the other way around. No I don’t intend to put a car in the garage and it will be used for storage to begin like you say.  It does need to be able to serve the purpose to a reasonable degree of being able to fit a car in, with out me having to get out the boot ?.

002 - Proposed Plot Plan - P01.pdf

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Depends on your priorities of course, but personally I wouldn't like the GF hallway in such a long, narrow strip. It seems to take up a lot of space for circulation and also divides the rooms that shoot off from it into similar long shapes. Would maybe have a think about whether separate, cloak room, boot room and utility rooms are all needed as you would save on wall footprint and cost if any of those could be combined and do double-duty.

 

Upstairs has a nice clean layout.

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Speaking on design. 

 

(Deliberately not talking about aspects of the plans, rather thinking around the box.)

 

I think that one risk of your narrowish (and not *that* deep) plot is that the house will look (and feel) like a big shoebox for storing people in. Having said that 10.5m width (or 8m for the house, or 7m for inside the house) is more than most people have, but is not generous. Oversized-shoebox is a classic shape for a pushed-slightly-too-far selfbuild.

 

The house is half of the length of the plot. The front is 10m deep, so you risk the backgarden feeling very short.

 

The surroundings are ribbon development both sides of the road, detached houses of varying age and the rear facing North East. In Lancashire (Q: are you windswept?). One neighbour is close, the other is a drive width away on their plot.

 

OTOH, you have open fields to the back.

 

I think that is actually quite a challenging context, and there are a lot of limits on what you can do.

 

The design needs to be creative in getting light into the middle of the structure, and making it feel like a house-nearly-in-the-country rather than something that could be in a former factory in inner-fringe London where it all has to look inwards. 

 

So IMO crucial aspects to do carefully are:

 

1 - Connections inside to outside - for light, views, and movement.

2 - Face to the street.

3 - Using the countryside outside your garden at the back as part of the garden. How you view the countryside from the inside.

 

That all on top of the basic functional requirements.

 

What would I be thinking? Different from the neighbours not fit-in, maybe non conventional roof shape - possibly with routes to get light in, big roof terrace at back (might even consider a roof-garden over the whole thing or smaller footprint and basement), look for my own aesthetic not try to be polite, try and make the ends articulated not flat - to minimise garage at front and make garden longer at the back by entering through set-back part. Small court / light well half way down one side. Articulate the front so sunlight reaches farther back?

 

Inspiration? Whilst thinking about this I thought of the roof terrace of the Grand Designs "Ice Cube" house in Brixton, and the roof shape of the Wiltshire Grand Design barn conversion near Marlborough.

 

Just thinking aloud

 

Ferdinand

Edited by Ferdinand
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