When I visited family in Canada, I found that the floor plans of the houses there were much more attractive than most found in Germany, but what I also said is: The quality even of the door to the house is less than the quality of the door to my toilet.
My dream would be: North American floor plans with German/Swiss build quality. Those would be the best houses in the world.
"Nothing but gyp rock, chip board and vinyl siding. The cheapest materials you can buy!", my grandpa would lament whenever we would drive past freshly erected sprawl.
He was getting a little senile at that time, so he would say it a lot.
Those would cost an absolute fortune (and I’m sure they exist on the ultra high end in the US). Typical American home construction seems to be ~100usd/sqft; Germany appears to be 2-3000eur/sqm.
And very (IMO pointlessly) big houses are currently in vogue in the US; there’d probably be limited market for moderate sized houses of high quality construction vs 3000sqft houses of cheap construction.
Net of land costs in both cases. Though to be clear they’re just the first figures I found, and the German figures in particular are all over the place.
I did a little arithmetic, at 1.16 dollars per euro and 11.11 sqft per sqm, and reulted in 1228 eur/sqm in the US, compared with 2-3000 eur/sqm in Germany.
So half or a third the cost. That is significant.
[Edited: I see others have had the same idea to regularize the units, now we can check each other's work ;)].
Exactly! Gosh, I never understood why placing a bathroom next to the bedroom - the first and last room you visit everyday - is such a foreign idea to german architects...
This could be a space-saving measure. A bathroom also needs to be used by other occupants of the house/apartment (children, guests staying over etc.) and if it's only available by passing through the master bedroom, it becomes a privacy issue.
As a consequence, you need to add more bathrooms (which requires additional space and money) or make the primary one accessible in a more public way (from the hallway).
That's a valid concern, I wouldn't want guests to have to move through my bedroom to access the toilet either. However I've seen lots of American apartments with a two door bathroom - one to the master bedroom, the other to the hallway. That definitely does make the most sense in my opinion.
Aside from this, even in spacious and expensive German flats or houses, this isn't common.
Is it common to put where you defecate in the same room as where you clean? I've seen many "half baths" which are just toilets and sinks, but bathrooms that also contain toilets not even separated by a door.
If it's about space utility, then dividing the rooms in two allows twice as many occupants, unless it's customary for people not to wait to use the toilet until others are out of the shower.
Yes, that is very common around here, and no, I suspect this is not primarily about space utility but simply a cultural difference. Although I strongly agree with your points.
The point is, that they usually plan one bathroom per floor, not per bedroom. The primary reasons for that are prices and available space. At the moment it is quite hard to buy land on which you can build a large house in Germany. It is not only expensive, but there is often almost nothing available.
Maybe to not disturb your SO with flushing/shower etc? If I will ever building a house toilet & bathroom will have to be as far from sleeping parts as possible.
Quality of deep sleep is far more important than walking 5m extra from time to time
The house in Germany we finally bought features an almost perfect solution: the master bedroom is alone on the top floor and the only other room on this floor, separated by a 2sqm corridor, is a large bathroom. So you actually have 2 doors available to separate sounds from the bathroom from the bedroom and still have the privacy of an ensuite-bathroom only for the owners (as none of our frequent guests would "by accident" get to our floor.
Well, that is an advantage of german houses: They are built from cinder blocks or concrete and have proper, thick, hardwood doors - so if the bathroom door is closed, you usually don't hear anything.
My dream would be: North American floor plans with German/Swiss build quality. Those would be the best houses in the world.