Hong Kong, 18 July 2018 ————– Founder and Managing Director of Sepia Design Consultants Limited, Thomas Schmidt, AIA, LEED AP was awarded a Placemaking Award. He was awarded the “Best-crafted Art Piece in the ‘Eat & Drink’ Category” in Swire Properties “Hometown Heroes: I am a Placemaker” community outreach program.
Over 400 Quarry Bay residents volunteered to participate in a community art project to voice the types of food, art, entertainment and shopping experiences they want to see in their neighborhood. Curated by the Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation, the project attracted a wide range of participants who were each given a 150 x 150 mm art box to design and decorate within a two-hour time frame to convey their visions.
Schmidt remarked, “The initiative to seek community involvement in design decisions which directly affects their lives is very inspiring in a city that is often driven by a top-down development approach.” Schmidt explained his winning entry, entitled “Picnic Time”, as “a wide open grassy park in this claustrophobic concrete city where a resident can simply walk out of their door on a nice day and have a picnic, without being shooed away by overzealous security guards.”
An awards ceremony was held on 18 July 2018 at Citiplaza South, located in Hong Kong’s Taikoo Shing district.
Editor’s Note: Thomas Schmidt, AIA, LEED AP is the founder of Sepia Design Consultants Limited, an award-winning design multi-disciplinary consultancy specializing in creative and sustainable design solutions for the hospitality industry. Schmidt is also author and illustrator of the award-winning Bumbling Traveller Adventure Series which seeks to promote environmental and cultural awareness through entertaining mysteries and adventures, which was recognized by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) through a 2010 Chapter Citation.