From January 3 to 5, the specialized committee on Integrated Land and Transportation Planning and Development (TOD) of the China Land and Economic Society, Beijing Jianyan Housing Construction Engineering Group, and the Future Architecture Design Alliance Network jointly hosted the forum on TOD and Land Synergy Development and the first preparatory meeting of TOD committee of the China Land and Economic Society in Beijing. A number of well-known experts, scholars, city investment companies, rail transit companies, international and domestic well-known design institutions participate in this forum. Christopher Knabe, General Manager of OBERMEYER China, was invited to attend this Forum and gave the speech on "The Unfolded City - Embedded Kinetic Energy”.

OBERMEYER’s initial TOD and underground development experiences go back to 1960’s. ‘Stachus’ (Karls-Plaza) underground commercial and light-railway station project in Munich/Germany, which was the largest underground project in Europe at that time, became a milestone project for the rising business of OBERMEYER. The rapid development of China's economy has brought rapid changes in the development of the cities. China's urbanization process is also far faster than that of developed countries. In the process of urbanization in China, Obermeyer brings together the elite team of the company to integrate the German experiences with the characteristics of China's urban development. It has participated in the design of the underground space of Hangzhou Qianjiang New Town, the transportation organization and underground space of Guangzhou Zhujiang New Town and the underground space of Wuhan Optical Valley Central City. Within China these projects turned into extremely significant new CBD projects and show par excellence Obermeyer’s forward-thinking of TOD and underground space development, surpassing the scale of the ‘Stachus’ by far.

At the same time, Obermeyer has been participating in the related TOD projects on High speed railway station in China in recent years. Among them, Mr. Knabe emphatically introduced the urban design of Guangzhou North Station New City, the Changsha West Station City, and Fuyang West Station City. With the process of China’s urbanization, the connotation of a railway station will be further expanded. In addition to the railway passenger transport function, multi-dimensional composite urban service function will be introduced, which will organically integrate the functions of transportation, service, culture, ecology, security, smart city, and become the engine to drive urban vitality.

Adhering to advanced and comprehensive design philosophies, Obermeyer is looking forward to contribute in coming TOD developments for China and worldwide.