Semi-final plans --- feedback/critique welcome!

[RK6]

Hey everyone!

 

Design and planning is progressing well for my partially subterranean house in Scotland. You guys are all much more experienced than me, so I'm sure you've got some great feedback that would benefit the build.

 

Lots of details yet to be worked out (including water/power/heating/cooling), but I'm very excited to be progressing from the initial design phase to the detailed planning phase.  

 

 

 

Edited December 6, 2021 by RK6

[Dave Jones]

interesting. Have you costed it yet ?

[Thorfun]

nice looking project! I'm no expert but we like a large utility room where you don't have to shuffle past someone/something to get to the other end. could you not increase the size of the utility room and reduce the garage size? a 4 car garage seems a bit excessive in a 3 bed house!

 

The cinema/media room seems a little pokey and also looks a little square. have you done the research on ideal dimensions for home cinemas? might be worth doing that first and then building the room to fit those requirements rather than trying to fit a cinema in to a square room of arbitrary size.

 

just a couple of thoughts but I look forward to you, hopefully, updating these forums with your progress. looks like a very interesting project for sure.

[Radian]

I think the master bedroom could do with a little bit more floor area to make it less rectangular. I would as much as you can spare off the adjacent bedroom and also move the door up the corridor to the end of the rooflight. This lobby area then becomes dedicated storage/display cabinets for the bedroom. Agree with doing plenty of research on cinema area - maybe check with an AV supplier and talk it over in their demo room. Good luck with this very cool project!

[JohnMo]

Couple of this.

 

Lots of glass, great on a plan and looks good, but huge heat loss byin winter and huge heat gain in summer. Not sure how you will meet min building regs in Scotland.

 

Not sure where north and south is on the plan? This will have big impact on solar gain. 

 

Same comments on utility and cinema room, as previously mentioned. You

 

That's a huge island in the kitchen, looks about 4m long.

 

Middle bedroom, has big sliding doors and with bed in current location a view of a wall, consider a reorientation of room to same as the other two bedrooms.

 

You have a huge amount of corridors, which appears to be dead space.

 

Have you considered a plant room?

 

I would be inclined to move the whole garage wing to the left, to reduce the length of corridor at the rear of the building.

 

Wall between garage and utility will need to s thermal insulated wall, shown the same dims as internal stud.

 

[Thorfun]

it is very easy to spend other peoples money! and I'm not normally one for commenting on designs as they're such personal things. but...... ?

 

if you're digging into the hill to create the cinema could you not take a little more out and build a gym? or another room that could be used for another purpose? obviously budgets are an issue but it seems a shame to not make the most of the space in the hill now when it won't cost too much more than try and cobble something else together at a later date?

 

we were originally planning a basement only under half our main structure. in the end we decided that it wasn't much more to just make the basement the whole of the main structure. it definitely wasn't the same cost again as plant was already on site, formwork was already being made etc. now we have rooms that can be purposed as required.

 

anyway, just a thought.

[the_r_sole]

what does it look like? elevations/3ds?

Be good to see how it sits on the site before commenting!

 

[RK6]

10 hours ago, Dave Jones said:

interesting. Have you costed it yet ?

 

We're working within a ballpark budget for now. It's for sure 7 figs, but I don't know an exact number yet. 

[RK6]

10 hours ago, Thorfun said:

nice looking project! I'm no expert but we like a large utility room where you don't have to shuffle past someone/something to get to the other end. could you not increase the size of the utility room and reduce the garage size? a 4 car garage seems a bit excessive in a 3 bed house!

 

The cinema/media room seems a little pokey and also looks a little square. have you done the research on ideal dimensions for home cinemas? might be worth doing that first and then building the room to fit those requirements rather than trying to fit a cinema in to a square room of arbitrary size.

 

just a couple of thoughts but I look forward to you, hopefully, updating these forums with your progress. looks like a very interesting project for sure.

 

I get your point RE the utility, but its fairly huge vs. the utility rooms I've had in prior houses, so it's a big upgrade for me. Not sure about the cinema room dimensions yet, but I am in the process of seeking professional advice, so I will have a better idea reasonably soon. 

 

Utility room is currently 6m x 2m (12m2)

Cinema room currently 4.8m x 4m (19.2m2)

Garage is roughly 15m x 8m (118.5m2) and if anything, I'll be making it larger, not smaller! ? 

[RK6]

10 hours ago, Radian said:

I think the master bedroom could do with a little bit more floor area to make it less rectangular. I would as much as you can spare off the adjacent bedroom and also move the door up the corridor to the end of the rooflight. This lobby area then becomes dedicated storage/display cabinets for the bedroom. Agree with doing plenty of research on cinema area - maybe check with an AV supplier and talk it over in their demo room. Good luck with this very cool project!

 

That's a great point about moving the door. Quick way to make the bedroom feel bigger, while also putting some otherwise dead space to better use. 

 

Not sure about stealing from the spare room, but it's definitely something to explore. The bedroom feels plenty big enough to me, but it's definitely an odd shape, so could use some work!

[eandg]

Would be helpful to see orientation etc to comment fully but looks very interesting so apologies if my comments appear a wee bit harsh. 

 

May just be my ignorance of the site/misunderstanding of the drawings but I can't see why you need to go into the ground (with all its expense) at all - who'll ever use the stairs off the street, or the courtyard off the study? Even in its current form you could just stick the cinema room in that gap but for me I'm not sure from the current plan that you'd get any sense of something extraordinary which you should be expecting on that budget - lots of nice features but looks like you'll be arriving to a depot with a big garage and a side door. And there's then the practicalities of how far you'll need to travel to get from car to living space - particularly bedrooms. I dare say you'd soon get fed up if you're like me or my kids and routinely forget hats, gloves, bags etc. and need to nip back in to a bedroom a fair distance away. There's also lots of dead space which is fine if you can afford it but I just think you could do so much more with the site and budget. 

Edited December 7, 2021 by eandg

[RK6]

10 hours ago, JohnMo said:

Couple of this.

Lots of glass, great on a plan and looks good, but huge heat loss byin winter and huge heat gain in summer. Not sure how you will meet min building regs in Scotland.

Not sure where north and south is on the plan? This will have big impact on solar gain. 

Same comments on utility and cinema room, as previously mentioned. You

That's a huge island in the kitchen, looks about 4m long.

Middle bedroom, has big sliding doors and with bed in current location a view of a wall, consider a reorientation of room to same as the other two bedrooms.

You have a huge amount of corridors, which appears to be dead space.

Have you considered a plant room?

I would be inclined to move the whole garage wing to the left, to reduce the length of corridor at the rear of the building.

Wall between garage and utility will need to s thermal insulated wall, shown the same dims as internal stud.

 

 

Some great points there - I'm concerned about heating/cooling given the sheer qty of glass in the plan, but my architect is confident that it'll be okay. Can't really comment beyond that until I see his plan for both systems. Also worth noting that there's a 2m overhand around the entire house which will provide needed shade in the summer months. 

 

A plant room may be required, although again, I'm not privy to the heating/cooling plan yet. I've done some reading on ASHPs and I'd imagine that would be his plan. 

 

The garage is on the right to keep it away from the entrance and to ensure visitors aren't confused as to which way to go when they enter the plot. Insulation is however a good call, thanks!

 

 

[RK6]

9 hours ago, the_r_sole said:

what does it look like? elevations/3ds?

Be good to see how it sits on the site before commenting!

 

 

Ignore the materials as its more likely to be corten steel with long thin petersen bricks, but these pics will give you the gist of what the house will look like. 

[JohnMo]

Just a bit we found with solar gain, we have large overhangs, which should protect us in the summer, in September and October, with the sun very low, we got loads of gain in late afternoon.

[RK6]

Another possible material option. 

[RK6]

14 minutes ago, eandg said:

Would be helpful to see orientation etc to comment fully but looks very interesting so apologies if my comments appear a wee bit harsh. 

 

May just be my ignorance of the site/misunderstanding of the drawings but I can't see why you need to go into the ground (with all its expense) at all - who'll ever use the stairs off the street, or the courtyard off the study? Even in its current form you could just stick the cinema room in that gap but for me I'm not sure from the current plan that you'd get any sense of something extraordinary which you should be expecting on that budget - lots of nice features but looks like you'll be arriving to a depot with a big garage and a side door. And there's then the practicalities of how far you'll need to travel to get from car to living space - particularly bedrooms. I dare say you'd soon get fed up if you're like me or my kids and routinely forget hats, gloves, bags etc. and need to nip back in to a bedroom a fair distance away. There's also lots of dead space which is fine if you can afford it but I just think you could do so much more with the site and budget. 

 

Not harsh at all. The plot deserves something special, and the budget isn't small, so the house needs to deliver. I had reservations initially, but I think the roofline is pretty special, and with the right materials, it's going to look amazing. I'll also post some interior renders shortly as the spaces created are also pretty special imo. 

 

The cinema room is intended to be completely hidden hence building it into the hill, which will also help with noise absorption, etc. Not entirely sure how to hide the door yet, but it'll likely be some fairly typical art/bookshelf type deal. It could have easily went in one of the courtyards, but I think that would have killed the look we're going for. It's going to be fairly monolithic, and sci-fi esque, so it definitely won't be to everyones taste. 

 

What would you have done if you were I? 

[RK6]

Early interior renders.

[Mr Punter]

From the renders the sun will be over half way into the living room.  Someone on here @NSS? has Sage glass, which can be tinted automatically to reduce unwanted solar gain.  Maybe worth considering now as you have the funds.

[eandg]

2 hours ago, RK6 said:

 

Not harsh at all. The plot deserves something special, and the budget isn't small, so the house needs to deliver. I had reservations initially, but I think the roofline is pretty special, and with the right materials, it's going to look amazing. I'll also post some interior renders shortly as the spaces created are also pretty special imo. 

 

The cinema room is intended to be completely hidden hence building it into the hill, which will also help with noise absorption, etc. Not entirely sure how to hide the door yet, but it'll likely be some fairly typical art/bookshelf type deal. It could have easily went in one of the courtyards, but I think that would have killed the look we're going for. It's going to be fairly monolithic, and sci-fi esque, so it definitely won't be to everyones taste. 

 

What would you have done if you were I? 

No idea - easier to edit than to draft and I couldn't conceive that budget! It does looks very nice though I think the entrance is all a bit underwhelming for the site and price tag. I'd be wanting a bit more of a sense of place. 

[RK6]

16 hours ago, Mr Punter said:

From the renders the sun will be over half way into the living room.  Someone on here @NSS? has Sage glass, which can be tinted automatically to reduce unwanted solar gain.  Maybe worth considering now as you have the funds.

 

Thanks for pushing the point. Seems I haven't been giving solar gain enough thought, but i'll definitely raise with the architect and start thinking about a suitable plan. 

 

In my head solar gain would be a good thing as in Scotland, any heat is good heat. Especially at this time of year!

[RK6]

15 hours ago, eandg said:

No idea - easier to edit than to draft and I couldn't conceive that budget! It does looks very nice though I think the entrance is all a bit underwhelming for the site and price tag. I'd be wanting a bit more of a sense of place. 

 

My brief (and one of the planning conditions) was to hide the house from view when standing to the north and make it seem like the ruined Doocot is the only building on the plot. I thought the theatre of descending down into a big light filled space after driving up to a tiny little building would be pretty cool. 

[Thorfun]

1 hour ago, RK6 said:

I thought the theatre of descending down into a big light filled space after driving up to a tiny little building would be pretty cool

I agree on that point. personally I think the entrance will be awesome and love the way that the house is hidden and only that small building is visible. I hope you get this project going and update the forum as I will follow this with much interest.

[Mr Punter]

54 minutes ago, RK6 said:

In my head solar gain would be a good thing as in Scotland, any heat is good heat. Especially at this time of year!

 

You could well be right and it can be modelled.  In some places you can just open a window to prevent overheating but in others it will still be oppressively hot.

 

The 7 figure budget is rather vague.  I would not expect this to cost less than a £1M with a main contractor but you may not want to go too crazy.

 

There is a Corten house just down from me that was on Grand Designs.  I am not a great fan of the finish and it is not that easy to work with.

 

Make sure you get detailed costings, especially on the non-standard bits like the retaining wall and the cantilevered roof canopy, before you apply for planning consent.  The interior stuff you can change if you need to but the exterior form and finishes is part of the consent.

[JohnMo]

1 hour ago, RK6 said:

 

Thanks for pushing the point. Seems I haven't been giving solar gain enough thought, but i'll definitely raise with the architect and start thinking about a suitable plan. 

 

In my head solar gain would be a good thing as in Scotland, any heat is good heat. Especially at this time of year!

For context we are between Aberdeen and Inverness, big southwest window, with large roof overhang.  Very well insulated, once the heat starts building up, on a still afternoon/evening, even opening the windows has a small effect.

[ETC]

This is no doubt heading for a Grand Design and will most certainly have a “wow” factor.

However:

Where will the bins go?

Where is the boiler?

Is there any fuel storage?

Where will the washing line be located?

Is there adequate storage - Christmas decorations and tree? The hoover and ironing board?

 

Some thoughts:

Have you thought about handing the plan so that the Kitchen is next to the Utility Room and the Study is next to the bedroom block?

Perhaps think about reducing the size of the Master Bedroom en-suite and/or reconfiguring the layout?

Edited December 8, 2021 by ETC
Additional text added