H.A.J.A. (Rianne) Appel-Meulenbroek

“The only way to provide real evidence for the business case of workplace interventions is by getting involved in transdisciplinary research initiatives.”

Rianne Appel is an Assistant Professor in corporate real estate (CRE) and workplace at the Department of Architecture, Building and Planning at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). In her research, Rianne approaches CRE as an important strategic resource for (knowledge) organizations. She focuses on 2 lines of research: 1) how it should be managed strategically and 2) how location, building and workspace design choices for modern work environment concepts add value to driving forces of the users (such as employee health and productivity, innovativeness of the organization, and flexibility).

In order to carry out the 2^nd type of environmental psychology related research, she relies on innovative methods of studying and measuring buildings and their usage. These include spatial network analysis techniques, sensors and other (smart) technologies and choice experiments. Results are always placed within the larger framework of the 1^st research line, involving strategic thinking and alignment between CRE strategy and corporate strategy.

Rianne Appel received her MSc in real estate management from TU/e in 1999. She worked as a consultant for Buck Consultants International and for the international consultancy and engineering group DHV, advising small and large organizations on a wide variety of CRE issues for five years. Rianne is editor of the Journal of CRE, a member of the editorial board of CRE journal and acts as reviewer for several other journals. She is founder and chair of the Transdisciplinary Workplace Research (TWR) network and a board member of the European Real Estate Society (ERES) and the Dutch Society for RE researchers (VOGON). She has presented her work at different international scientific conferences and industry seminars and is published in leading scientific real estate and workplace journals.

Rianne also propagates her work to practitioners by publishing in national and international real estate business magazines and participating in communities such as Corenet (global association for corporate real estate professionals) and CREME (Dutch association for CRE directors). She has won several ‘best paper’ awards at various conferences and for different journals.