House Design Feedback

[ultramods]

Hi,

 

Received the first draft of our house designs today.

 

Can anyone give me feedback on them please?

 

The plot is in a conservation area on the former site of a hospital that consisted of half a dozen large buildings laid out in a villa format.

 

Unfortunately the derelict building pictured to the house east doesn't belong to us and there are no plans for anyone to be converting it.

 

 

565-02 Proposals.pdf

 

south west

 

North East

 

 

South East

 

North West

 

New build houses next to one of the original buildings

 

 

Another South East

 

Another North East

 

Another South West

Edited April 6, 2017 by ultramods

[PeterW]

What was the brief to the architect..??

 

Comments ....

 

lots of wasted space and "storage" which could be better used - some of those look like an afterthought as rooms wouldn't fit. 

 

Snug is far from snug..! Make it 1m shallower from the kitchen end and lose the shelving and the store to the side of the stairs becomes a study. 

 

I would also be tempted to swap dining and family as the sofa across the island seems odd ...

 

Master bedroom dressing has a direct view onto the landing - needs some sort of screening. 

 

Door into ensuite would be better in the room rather than a la hotel as it is currently next to the door

 

Combine bed 4 wardrobe and landing store and create another en suite. 

 

What is the store off the utility for ..?? Plant room ..??

 

just my first thoughts so feel free to question or ignore ..!

 

 

 

[ultramods]

Thanks Peter.

 

For the I requirements I added lots of photos to Houzz Scrapbook https://www.houzz.co.uk/ideabooks/67831575

 

I have attached another image that includes our written requirements to the architect.

 

 

[ultramods]

Peter, your comments are similar to my thinking.

 

We did want at least 2 more ensuites.

 

The snug may double up as a bedroom for my disabled mother in law when they are visiting, so does need to be quite big for bed and wheelchair access

[PeterW]

If it was me I would save the money on that (expensive) glazed corner and swap the master with the bed 2 and make that east window bigger. 

 

£300k is going to be tight for 314 sqm so you have to make the most of the space. 

 

The lounge "shelving" is wasted space anyway behind a sofa - a separate study would make the house more attractive in the future. 

[ultramods]

Thanks Peter. I was also wondering about putting the downstairs wetroom in the space of the cupboard and shelving, which would also make it an ensuite for the snug when it is a bedroom, but still have access from hall as well. 

 

The store could then go in the void underneath the stairs. 

[AliG]

Hi,

 

As others have said, the upstairs design makes pretty poor use of the space.

 

Bedroom 2 is bizarrely long and has no wardrobes. There is room there for a wardrobe and an ensuite. Considering you asked for 2 ensuites, there is loads of room for one in any of bed 2, 3 or 4 so I don't know why you didn't get one.

 

I am not sure why the Master Bed has a Dressing Room and wardrobes separately.

 

Bedroom 3 and 4 at 2.9m wide are a touch narrow. Again Bed 3 is very strangely proportioned in length versus width. I would make the garage maybe deeper to make the rooms above wider. Maybe an extra 0.4m. A kingsize bed plus duvet hanging over the end is around 2.1m long so you only have 0.8m clearance. Bedroom 4 should not have a wardrobe at each end. You could take the Bed 4 wardrobe and store and make an upstairs laundry room, or just try and make the house a little smaller.

 

A 4m garage door in a 5.9m wide garage is not optimal. I would always recommend having as wide a door as possible. There is room for a 5m door which will be much more comfortable to get 2 cars through.

 

The wall between the house and garage should be shown as insulated, this may just be an oversight.

 

As has been said you could get a study out of the cupboard and part of the snug. Then have an understair cupboard. You would need to screen the window from next door if you did this.

 

When you say £300k budget are you including architects fees, floor finishes, kitchens etc. All in I think you'd struggle to get below £1200 a square metre, although it is not an overly expensive, fussy design.

 

Why is there a window in the garage, unless you plan a workshop in there, that is a pointless waste of money.

 

In Scotland I always like some kind of protection around the front door, I would maybe try to set it back from the outside wall to create a porch area.

 

(I see you requested this)Unless you use Corian or a similar material you cannot have a 3.5m island without a join in the worktop. I would hate to have a join in an island.

 

If you have a large kitchen/family/dining room I prefer not enter the room in the kitchen area. It creates a tight entry into the room and if dishes are piled up on the island for example they will be the first thing that people see.

 

If you do want to keep costs down, each bathroom adds quite a bit of expense. If I had a second ensuite I would maybe make the family bathroom smaller. The suggested layout for it is strange, although I would consider it quite preliminary at the moment.

 

I think you could probably redesign the house to be 10% smaller to reduce the build cost for little less usable space. Don't believe what the architect says about costs, they are often optimistic.

 

Oh and finally, they seem to have forgotten to put a window in the bathroom!

 

Edited April 6, 2017 by AliG

[Barney12]

As many have said the upstairs really doesn't work.

For both bathrooms in a 300 m2 house to have no windows is to be honest a design disaster. 

[AliG]

OK, i have to say it now @Barney12 has said it, I didn't notice the en suite was missing a window too. The architect has done a really poor job.

 

It's your house and I am sure you are really excited about it, but really the effort the architect has put in is so disappointing. You could probably find an off the shelf design from a timber kit company that is better.

Edited April 6, 2017 by AliG

[ultramods]

Thank you for all the comments.

 

I have been working on a revised design tonight, starting with the ground floor. What do you think of this layout?

[AliG]

With that design you could create a really nice sight line from the front door through double doors into the kitchen and out the windows at the back. You could even move the family area over slightly and perfectly align the front door with the centre of the roof above the family area and the double doors into the kitchen.

 

I far prefer entering the kitchen in a circulation space between the table and kitchen area.

 

If you turn the island through 90 degrees then put cabinets behind it you can make the kitchen a bit smaller and the hall shorter so waste less space. Or you could fit in a study. I think it would be hard to use that space behind the island as is when you already have an are for a table.

 

 

Edited April 6, 2017 by AliG

[jamiehamy]

Imagine the various scenarios of living in the house. Arriving home from work. Arriving home with bags of shopping. Coming in from the garden rather dirty. Holding a dinner party. Having family round for dinner. Getting the dishes done after a formal dinner. Watching a movie. Reading a book. Reading a book whilst a partner watches a movie. Friends round with their children - where do they go?

 

Walkthrough each scenario with the various layout permutations and you'll get there eventually - there is no right or wrong answer, just what will work and what will work best for you. 

 

 

[AliG]

Very well put @jamiehamy . To be fair on architects they don't know how you live and what would be most useful for you.

 

We went and designed all the bathrooms and kitchen before we finalised the house design as it would have been very disappointing to find they would not fit if the house had been approved before we finished the designs. And TBH our en suite is still too small.

 

I have even decided what goes in each drawer and cupboard in the kitchen.

[ultramods]

I have created some new plans that I will show the architect tomorrow. The new house size is around 280 SQM.

 

The bathrooms and ensuites need rejigged, however I think it's a better use of space.

 

Only major issues I see are:

1: The position of the stairs and then linked to that the length of the halls. I have put a store under the stairs as the ground floor ceiling height will be 2.7 - 2.8 metres. 

2: The porch

 

 

 

Edited April 6, 2017 by ultramods

[ultramods]

Thank you for all the feedback, it has confirmed a lot of the issues I could see and a few new ones as well.

[Ferdinand]

Ideally I would like to see a site plan explaining access, relation to the "existing house", where roads are, precise orientation (North arrow), and exactly which bit of land you will get to keep.

 

My feeling is that you know lots of attractive items and rooms from different places that you like and have on your scrapbook, which is good, but that you are thinking from those and perhaps not enough from an integrated idea of how they will fit together to make your house that works for you. And it needs work from both ends. As it is, that core concept is being provided by the architect - and that is for you to create. I will mainly address the relationship to the site and garden. You have lots of good feedback on the designs.

 

It looks a fantastic plot, with the only downside being (I think, digging) that you have a road all the way round your garden side. I am not sure about that huge shared access; to my eye separate drives (yours against the boundary) on the other side would be superior as they would keep cars away from the private side, and less complex legally, but you may be stuck with that. You need to pay a lot of care to your boundary treatment with the road ... perhaps an 8-10ft high, thick, evergreen hedge and shrubbery in front to soften it to shut them out. Do that right, and you get a private oasis around your "villa".

 

I like the entrance sequence from the first design. You park your car and go into a door in a corner without being able to know about what is beyond. Then you go through the hall and into the living area to see the sweep of garden and turn your back on the world and the house close by in your private oasis. Good and unwinding. Then the habitable rooms in both designs are mainly on that private S and W side, with circulation and service on the North (ish), garage, car, and neighbour side.

I can think of 2 guiding concepts that seem to fit the site: "private oasis" is one. The other is "clearing in the woods" with an informal woodland garden - so you plan the rooms where you will spend most time on the side where you see the private garden, rather than the side you approach from.

 

I would suggest working a bit more at the core concept and how you will use the house, integrated with the garden. Jamie's "usage cases" suggestion is great, as would be building a few physical models. What about visiting some houses to get ideas - a good justification for some AirBNB trips or B&Bs in Grand Designs, to houses which may be similar or places where design will be at a premium (eg compact urban flats). Or shamelessly exploit some estate agents by making fake visits. Or there are "Open House" events everywhere.

 

On the question you actually asked , I would try and setup the family area so that it gets 3 aspect sun, and have a covered patio outside for summer breakfast, BBQs etc.

 

I wonder about making the room above the garage into a possible teenage den or office-studio as a second purpose, to keep the racket far away and give privacy. And I think your bathrooms are perhaps too large, but the showers themselves not generous enough. I like showers big enough to step back and have a good appreciative look at the person you are (hopefully) sharing the shower with, or to be well away while the water is heating up, or to have space for a garden chair or stool to sit on while cutting nails or shaving your legs. Ideally, I like the same footprint as a bath. 

 

On the second design I am not sure about the Master above the garage facing the neighbour, the  driveway, and the North.

 

And I think you perhaps have too much circulation space ... width of corridors etc.

 

There are technical bits ... eg on your pair of ensuites between beds 3 and 4 the loos are positioned to wake up next door when you flush it at 3am, rather than against the bedroom where they are the ensuite. That will all come out when you reflect on it later. Compare your design 2 to his initial design on this score ... but those gotchas are what architects are partly for,

 

One caution: you are near Aberdeen so (given current oil, Sindy etc) perhaps (?) pay some attention to future sales prospects - eg don't bust the ceiling price by too much.

Edited April 7, 2017 by Ferdinand

[AliG]

Yes where architects are often good is thinking about the house relative to the site, where we tend to think of the interior practicalities.

 

It may be that this has caused them to make some sub optimal interior design ideas.

 

I thought the house to the east would mean you cannot have windows so close to the boundary, but I seem to remember from someone else's design that a derelict building/empty piece of land has no right to not be overlooked. The council may still want to try enforce their local rules re how close windows are to boundaries.

 

When we designed out house I was more exact in giving the architect the size of the rooms that I wanted. Maybe if you show hime the room size here and give him 280sq metres he will come back with a more efficient design.

 

I would also consider making part of the upstairs one and a half storeys high to create some variation and interest.

[Dudda]

Looking at the latest plans. 

Upstairs all you have is bedrooms. It's all private and no need for any visitors to go near upstairs so I'd look at positioning the stairs over where you've the downstairs WC. This will reduce the very long upstairs corridor which is poor use of space. And 5 bathrooms in a 4 bed house? Does every bed need an ensuite?

[Mr Punter]

There is a lot of glazing in the south west wall which could cause glare and overheating.  The rooms look too big.  I have stayed in a similar house in the US and it did not feel comfortable.  Nobody used the double height room with the ten person sofa.  Aim for 220m2.