R-Ex work expand from basic research in human-machine interaction, and reality computing to work and collaborations with engineers, material scientist, researchers and tradespeople immersed in theoretical and tacit knowledge of building construction. Our focus is to explore human-machine collaboration in the high-skill domain of the building trades.
R-Ex seeks to augment human labour not eliminate it, by developing a symbiotic relationship between the human body and the digital tools. It seeks for opportunities to renew and broaden the possibilities of age-old craft work by digitizing its practice so that it can be both further disseminated and better integrated with novel digital design and fabrication techniques. Combining digital
fabrication and manual craft and construction is a crucial aspect in the current context.
There can only be mutual benefits on the digitisation of traditional construction trades
to both the upgrading and augmenting of the building trades and for the transmission of wisdom of building cultures for their incorporation into the digital construction practice.