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 of user performance of non-residential buildings’ will be launched.
Now we have to wait that in the next edition of the NEN 8021 the Real Estate Standard for Commercial Buildings (1993) will also get the place it deserves.
An objective measurement system, such as the recent NEN 8021, ‘Valuation of user performance of utility buildings’, helps to identify and monitor concrete Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). This builds on the REN standard methodology from the 1990s. The starting point for the REN standard and NEN 8021 is the use of unambiguous but simple layman’s language that can be understood by the user of the property. The main goal is to use a common language understood by both the property user and the property professional to promote clear communication.
NEN 8021 does not (yet) include the ‘softer’ accommodation aspects that have a significant impact on the behaviour and well-being of people in buildings. See also REN and NEN 8021 valuation user performance. (René P.M. Stevens MSc Arch / MBA)
