It took a while to get used to this since you have to be prepared or you’ll end up with no food in the fridge if you forget to get groceries on Saturday. It’s also impolite to do anything noisy on Sunday in your apartment. This means no vacuuming, turning on the washing machine, or having a lot of people over. I know that a lot of the things I’ve mentioned here sound like inconveniences, and to an extent, they are, but a large part of successfully immersing in a new culture is being aware and respectful of small differences like these. The result of these customs is quiet Sunday mornings, clean public bathrooms, and a more sustainable society. Did you know one American consumes on average twice the amount of energy that a European does?
For this week’s architecture tool, I used a technology called LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) to 3D scan my kitchen. This tool is very helpful to quickly–and accurately–capture a space. It works by simultaneously measuring using invisible lasers, taking several pictures, and then stitching them together into a 3D model. If you happen to have an iPhone Pro (12 or later) you actually have a LiDAR scanner built into your phone (you just need to download a free app like Polycam to use it). Architects use this tool frequently to document existing conditions (what a place looks like before we change it). Do you see an out-of-place appliance in my kitchen? Fun fact, most of Europe has this appliance in the kitchen, which I found quite surprising.
