Examples of European TOD: case studies of Copenhagen and Randstad

TOD (Transit Oriented Development) belongs to important contemporary city planning strategies. The concept comes from the European metropolis planning strategy before the massive car production was introduced (second half of the 19.th century to mid 20.th century). The population has doubled, even tripled, and that has been proved in the size and the sight of the city. "Verticalisation" of buildings is economically possible only till certain height, so the need of horizontal city has emerged. In conjunction with the industrial revolution new suburbs have aroused. Their position and density was directly related to the effectivity of transportation, mostly influenced by the railway. Today's theory of TOD comes from the American city environment, that has been most disabled by the automobile production. The railway transportation is emerging in the US from the end of the 70´s with the goal of developing new dense inhabited city quarters, with walkable distances, mixed use and fast connection next to the stations. This type of "European city planning" is applied in the US in different strategies, plans and realizations throughout the country. This theory is reaching Europe and Asia much later. So newly built examples are not often in the EU. The aim of this grant is a research of two built examples of TOD on the continent, concretely as an case study. Copenhagen has been chosen for the first example with its whole city quarter built on the "greenfield" using the principles of TOD (Orestad). The second example comes from the Dutch conurbation Randstad, which is reconstructing/building railway connection based on TOD principles. Both examples are researched on different years. The goal of this grant is a research of the whole TOD process from the beginning to the end. Crucial element for the future success of other projects is the complex knowledge of existing specimen. The experience, strategies, plans and results from the stakeholders point of view is a part of this res