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Stress test learn/work environment At most organisations, you have a performance conversation with your boss once a year about how things are going, what the company thinks of you, and what you think of the company. This is usually also where your salary comes in. A management team that is aware of the strategic opportunities…

The REN Real Estate Norm Foundation celebrates its 6th lustrum of facilitating and improving communication about demand, supply, and ownership of locations and buildings that create more transparency. -The Architect as Business Optimizer- ‘Places that matter and work instead of just workplaces’

“Very great change starts from very small conversations, held among people who care.” (Margaret J. Wheatley) Wishing you all a smooth metamorphosis in 2022! -The Architect as Business Optimizer- ‘Places that matter and work instead of just workplaces’

The multi-faceted environment influences how you think and feel. The human mind, emotions and body, Inner Environment, are not separate and distinct from their Outer Environment. A well-designed campus for learning in the 21st century is a place to construct knowledge and facilitate experiential learning. The learn/work environment is an ecosystem of Bricks, Bytes and…

Solidified policy The higher education landscape is changing. Over the last centuries, educational institutions have undergone substantial changes in learning theories and pedagogical approaches. From a place of instruction – transmission (19th century), via a place to produce learning – transactional (20th century) to a place to construct knowledge – transformational (21st century). The new…

Don’t THINK LEFT wing or RIGHT wing. Open your mind THINK for YOURSELF. Open your HEART and ACT… Wish you all an amazing 2021! -The Architect as Business Optimizer- ‘Places that matter and work instead of just workplaces’

Artist Dominique Wagner painted the Da Vinci Code – ‘Squaring of the circle by connecting the dots’ and created her version of the ‘Vitruvian Man’. Using the ATELIER V-man as a model. The inscription in a square and a circle in the original painting of Leonardo da Vinci from around 1490 (estimate value £860 million)…

In memoriam: Paul de Blot (15 May 1924 – 15 December 2019) Inspirator and mentor Prof Dr Paul de Blot SJ, passed away on Sunday 15 December 2019. He became 95 years. A re-post of the interview he gave to us in January 2016. 91 years young Prof. Dr Paul de Blot (still active as…

I recently sat down with Brian Rose in the London Real studios to talk about my vision with the podcast The ‘E’ of real estate. Bridging the perceived gap between science and spirituality to form a new balanced unity. A holistic approach as an architect using spirituality practically. Balancing the inner and the outer environment…

The ‘E’ of real estate podcast will help you to create a positive impact by rethinking the learn/work environment of a university campus to maximize human potential. A human-centric environment to learn and work, that is a better place for organisations, people and society. A place that is adaptive to changing user needs. A place…

Are Architecture and Neuroscience connected? If so, then it will help to create a positive impact by rethinking our built environment to maximize human potential. Making the built environment better for everyone: organizations, people and society. The Real Da Vinci Code, a reference to bridge REAL ESTATE and the REAL STATE of Humans?! The code…

Working on a new podcast about the user experience on university campuses. We will release the first episode in a few weeks. Stay tuned! The purpose of this audio/video podcast is to create a positive impact through raising awareness and providing best practice examples about (re)shaping university campuses to maximize human potential. I will talk…

Assessment The ultimate test for the effectiveness of housing is the experience of the one who uses it. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. But it will always be a work in progress. Apart from the (subjective) view of the users, there is also a need for an objective assessment of the…

Continuous change Not the initial architect but time is the main architect of our built environment. A building has to serve the continuously changing needs of its users. Change is inescapable, therefore buildings should be co-designed to make them adaptive by the users and can evolve to stay functional and pleasant to be in. Because…

Presenting end report added value benchmark, ‘From cost-driven towards total business value driven’. A study among several Dutch universities of applied sciences. -The Architect as Business Optimizer- ‘Places that matter and work instead of just workplaces’

Het belang van secundaire objectkenmerken woningen bij de bepaling van de WOZ-waarde – Vooronderzoek WOZ Woning REN. Recent hebben ATELIER V real estate B.V. en TU Eindhoven hun rapport opgeleverd. Opdrachtgevers waren de Waarderingskamer en de Belastingsamenwerking West-Brabant. Het rapport is openbaar en beschikbaar onder (ISBN: 978-90-386-4492-9). Dit explorerende onderzoek gaat over het benoemen en…

If the DNA and culture of an organisation are translated into a melody, which building symphony fits then? Buildings are ‘frozen’ music and shape your life. Just like sound can create order from chaos, so does architectural form creates orderliness. Architecture is a Symphony of Form. What are the building blocks of the organisational DNA that…

Musical symphony Architecture and urban planning evolved out of what is now called geomancy, the art of placing or arranging buildings or sites auspiciously. Tuning architecture to nature’s heartbeat and making it a sacred power spot by harmonic resonance, resulting in a harmonic instrument. Resonance connects two energy systems with similar energy qualities, exchanging energy…

Accommodation management is about strategic business assets that can contribute more than just efficiency. Benefits, costs, effectiveness and efficiency are inextricably linked. They can be distinguished, but cannot be separated. When benchmarking facility costs (NEN-EN 15221 Facility Management), lower costs are often assessed as positive in advance. Facility costs are proportional to the other expenses…

In the project Eunoia II (Beautiful thought) the artist Lisa Park puts her feelings on display. With biosensors and a brainwave sensor (EEG) headset, she made the invisible energy of emotions visible. Lisa believes that what is inside us, more than 60% of water in the human body, will create vibrations/energy within ourselves. So we…

Check out this wonderful animation about the Golden Key or Golden Ratio by Jonathan Quintin. The golden ratio is the golden thread that weaves its way through the tapestry of creation, uniting diverse and contrasting elements into a harmonious whole. The beauty of 1:1.618… (PHI or the Fibonacci Spiral), sacred geometry & universal order. Connecting…

In this SPRYG Real Estate Academy Webinar ‘Inspiring workplaces that promote value creation’ (in Dutch), René Stevens explains the operation of the Real Estate General Performance Survey® (RE-GPS) business model. The relationship between the Strategic Alignment Model, the Real Estate Dupont Analysis and the Real Estate Norm is discussed. A Real Estate GPS system to…

René Stevens gave a guest lecture ‘The Architect as Business Optimizer’ to the first-year Architecture students of the Eindhoven University of Technology – where innovation starts. “Added value of the built environment is a result of the mix of features (performance) that are relevant to the occupant: Functional performance + Esthetical performance + Technical performance…

René Stevens, general manager and business architect at ATELIER V, will be the moderator of the SPRYG Summer College 2016 ‘Inspiring Workspaces’. The program consists of: Trends in offices and workplaces Wouter Oosting is Senior Director Workplace Strategies & Design, CBRE Netherlands. He gives you an overview of current research into global trends in offices…

Alignment of Corporate Real Estate Management (CREM) + Facility Management (FM) + Information Communication Technology (ICT) + Human Resource Management  (HRM) = VALUE CREATION. Coherence between strategic ambitions and deployment of the corporate resources: real estate / FM / ICT / HRM promotes dialogue about mutual coordination and consistency. At natural moments, such as performance…

Is the price of real estate equal to the subjective value attributed to it? Is the value of real estate equal to the (market) price? Or in plain language; is the value of real estate equal to what the fool gives for it? A clearer distinction is made between price and value through the use…

Buildings can look right at first glance. And even equal in price. Yet there are differences that make one building less efficient and more expensive to set up for the intended work processes than another building. The purchase price is the same, but the value for the organisation using it is different. Comparing two buildings…

The world has come a long way since the first World Happiness Report launched in 2012. Increasingly happiness is considered a proper measure of social progress and the goal of public policy. A rapidly increasing number of national and local governments are using happiness data and research in their search for policies that could enable…

91 years young Prof. Dr Paul de Blot (still active as Professor at Business University Nyenrode, The Netherlands) shares his rich and inspiring experience about the truth about business in a real sense. He has brought the concept of spirituality into business. Dr Namita Aggarwal, Director at ATELIER V & IIMRS interviewing Prof. Dr Paul…

Following on from its Office Styles research of a decade ago, Atelier V, together with SpringCo and SAMR, is initiating a nationally representative multi-client study into the work experience of office users. The NEVAP supports the implementation of this research. We see the work experience as a result of the employee’s work style, the corporate…

REN Norm makes real estate REAL easy On 01-04-2015 ARCADIS Netherlands B.V. and DTZ Zadelhoff v.o.f. stepped back as board members of REN Netherlands Foundation. The new board consists of Stevens The Company B.V. (Chairman) and ATELIER V real estate B.V. (Secretary/Treasurer). The Real Estate Norm (REN) is a method that, already since 1991, enables…

Vibrations have an impact on matter The source of all creation is sound and resonance, everything spins and vibrates. Sound and resonance manifest in physical form. Every frequency has its own specific 3-dimensional shape. When sound is the source of all creation it can also be influenced or manipulated by sound, more specific with its…

People used to believe that you didn’t have to be happy at work to succeed. And you didn’t need to like the people you work with or even share their values. ‘Work is not personal’, the thinking went. This is bunk. To be fully engaged, people need vision, meaning, purpose, and resonant relationships. It’s on…

Accommodation a decisive factor Production tool for the user, profit maker for the developer, continuity for the investor, security for the financier. Accommodation is a decisive factor in the profitability of organisations. But to what extent? Changing economy, market mechanisms, legislation and user wishes influence value. We know the price of currencies and shares every…

What spices are in a dish is location and building for the value creation of an organisation. A relatively small amount of spices can make or break a dish. Occupancy costs represent on average ‘only’ about 8-12% of the annual budget. Personnel costs represent on average approximately 70-80% of the annual budget. Accommodation is a…

During the opening of ‘De Glasbak’, the new floating clubhouse of De Bouwer & Partners, on September 3, 2014, René Stevens gave a Pecha Kucha on Accommodation & Positioning. A theme that has fascinated him as an architect and business administrator for years. The core of his argument is that ‘The emotional tail wags the…

The presentation of the Design NEN 8021 during the Provada 2013, gave me, as co-founding father and former director Stichting Real Estate Norm Nederland, a satisfying feeling that the ideas of the REN standard from the nineties had found their way to the Netherlands Standardization Institute. At the beginning of 2014, the NEN 8021, ‘Valuation…

Why have we traditionally turned to non-profit organisations, NGOs and governments to solve the biggest social problems? Michael Porter wonders this out loud during this just released TED Talk. Porter admits that he is biased as a business school professor, but – just like the social entrepreneur’s movement – he sees great opportunities for entrepreneurs…

Our economic system is ready for a ‘hard system reset’ or even a ‘restore to factory default’ because only a ‘refresh’ is not enough. If the saw has become dull, do not cut through with even more effort, but insert a stop and sharpen the saw or buy a completely new saw. As an entrepreneur,…

The Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad headlined “Everyone out, don’t come to the office anymore”. The officials of the Rotterdam borough of Overschie are testing whether they can do without a building. It may seem like an extreme test, but it is not so bad as an exercise to break free from ingrained ways of thinking…

d’Eersteling Grote Koppel, Amersfoort Nefkens Building Utrechtseweg, Amersfoort ATELIER V officially opened its previous ‘work palace d’Eersteling’ at Grote Koppel 7 in AMERSFOORT on Queen’s Day 2007. Six years later, ATELIER V moved, just before the inauguration of King Willem Alexander on the last Queen’s Day, to its new work palace in the Nefkens building…

Military strategists As an accommodation professional, you are confronted on a daily basis at the tactical and operational levels with the impact of the strategic course of your organisation. Armed with this experience, what would you do differently if you could set the strategic course? Successful military strategists are not only characterized by having a…

Author Leonie Janssen-Jansen, associate professor of Planning at the University of Amsterdam, gives us a remarkable glimpse into some recent visions of the vacancy in the office market in Amsterdam on the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad opinion page of Wednesday 20 February 2013. In her Dutch article ‘Real estate really remains saturated’ she writes that…

In this video ‘Accommodation from a business perspective,’ management teams are invited to deal with the learn/work environment like a goldsmith. In addition to a functional roof over your head, accommodation is also a ‘billboard’ that continuously communicates with the market and the people who work in the building. The right balance between mind and…

ATELIER V was founded on December 19, 2002, giving our passion a first concrete shape. A passion to (re)develop areas and buildings in order to inspire, motivate and stimulate people and allow organisations to excel. Ten years later, as social entrepreneurs, we are still mainly guided by the needs of the users of real estate.…

At the UN climate conference COP18* in Qatar, the 193 countries present agreed to a proposal to extend the Kyoto treaty until 2020. It is seen as a poor success. The agreements in the protocol are intended to combat global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. An important point of contention at the summit in…

COP18 stands for the 18th conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It will be held from November 26 to December 7, 2012, in Doha, the capital of Qatar. René Stevens, founder and director of Atelier V, takes part in this conference. As an accredited person, he will…

It’s a balancing act Every human has a left and right hemisphere of the brain that influence how we see, experience and judge things. Each choice process is determined by the influence of the left and right hemispheres of the brain, of ratio and emotion, of mind and heart. In a way, they counterbalance each…

On the 31st of October, Mayor Bolsius of Amersfoort officially opened the Eemplein opposite the ATELIER V office with a cannon shot. Since 2005, we have been located in the d’Eersteling office on the Eemhaven in the Oliemolenkwartier, the creative hotspot of AMERSFOORT. In recent years, we have seen the Eemplein emerge from a vacant…

RIO+20 is the acronym for the United Nations Earth Summit on Sustainable Development, taking place in June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 20 years after the first milestone meeting in Rio in 1992. At the RIO+20 Conference, world leaders, along with thousands of participants from the private sector, NGOs and other groups, will come…

Dr Arjen Bosma, owner and psychologist/coach at Forest Advies from Utrecht won the ATELIER V – OEPS photo competition ‘Emotion and buildings’ with his series ‘New York’. His photo series captivatingly showed the almost elusive emotion of people who experience them through buildings. René Stevens presented the Panasonic LX5 to Arjen during the ‘Oeps group’…

It’s a balancing act Each choice process is determined by the influence of the left and the right hemisphere, the interplay of reason and emotion. Every person has a preference for ratio or emotion and is, therefore, more likely to be attracted to numbers or images. Often this is jokingly referred to as the difference…

Sustainability and corporate social responsibility may be topics of interest, but they have little to do with individuals. How can an individual contribute to a sustainable world, now and in the future? Businesses can have an effect by involving their employees in their sustainability policy. For them, however, it is not enough to say that…

Re-vital stands for an integrated approach by four renowned companies: ATELIER V real estate, Ballast Nedam Beheer, Imtech and Troostwijk Real Estate, which aims to revitalize real estate and impart distinctive character. Perhaps part of today’s vacancy problem lies in the fact that the offices have been developed too much as ‘one-size-fits-all’. Despite the fact…

Financial headache or a commercial opportunity? In recent years, the realization has grown that sustainable accommodation has a positive effect on the business operations of an organisation and therefore its results. However, existing real estate usually does not meet these requirements, which means that the vacancy rate of existing offices and industrial space rises to…

A few years ago we organized a competition to test the reputation of the ’mysterious -V-‘ in our name among clients. Many thought that the V stands for ‘Veel Verdienen’ (Much Earning), ‘Valuta’ (Currency), ‘Vermogend’ (Wealthy), Veni Vedi Vici or Victory. However, it also stands for ‘Voorspoed Voor Velen’ (Prosperity For Many). Atelier V is…

December 19, 2002 ATELIER V started. Now, 5 years later, we are proud to celebrate our first lustrum. We look back on 5 fertile years in which we have been able to prove our distinctive vision. Then we quickly look ahead to all new, challenging assignments and ambitious plans. -The Architect as Business Optimizer- ‘Places…

On Thursday, April 26, we opened our office with a spectacular Orange party. On the occasion of the opening and on the eve of Dutch Queens Day, the front façade was completely wrapped with a large orange cloth a la the artist Christo. As the opening act, the curtain was lowered by René Stevens, founder…

In the Dutch newspaper ‘Het Financieele Dagblad’  of 14 June 2006, a full-page is devoted to the approach of ATELIER V. “The market is full of offices that no one wants. That is why Atelier V real estate has developed a strategic marketing tool that gives office owners more insight into what organisations are actually…

As of October 10, 2005, we moved to our new office in the former warehouse d’Eersteling. A wonderful, creative home base for our team of professionals at the old harbour of Amersfoort. The new address is: Grote Koppel 7, 3813 AA in Amersfoort, The Netherlands. -The Architect as Business Optimizer- ‘Places that matter and work…

Due to the growth of its activities, ATELIER V real estate has leased approximately 300 m² of office space in the former warehouse d’Eersteling at Grote Koppel 7 in Amersfoort. The historic warehouse d’Eersteling has recently been completely renovated and is located on the quay of the Eemhaven, the old city harbour. It provides an…

How much we have created with the competition about our ‘V’ that we held on the occasion of our name change to ATELIER V real estate bv. The number of entries has far exceeded our expectations. Many wished us ‘Victory’, for which we thank. We were also often associated with ‘Vision’, ‘Innovative’ and ‘Versatile’. Our…

ATELIER V has changed its name. In order to give better substance to the broad activities in the field of accommodation, real estate and urban development, the full name will be ATELIER V real estate bv as of March 21, 2005. ATELIER V was previously called Atelier V design & development bv in full. Simultaneously…