Tooling Applications in the Collaboration Construction of Traditional Settlements in East Asia

Open Source Architecture (OSArc) has gradually gained prevalence in the construction industry in recent years. However, OSArc support is largely exhibited in design while lacking in construction. The earliest form of OSA has been observed in vernacular architecture. A literature review was conducted in the present study to investigate tooling applications, such as techniques, collaboration methods, organization frameworks, in the collaboration construction of the traditional settlements of East Asia. The results can serve as a reference for the future construction of OSArcs. In summary, (1) tools and building materials observed in different regions seem to be limited by the environment. In reality, they were combined with life recipes to create multipurpose tools; for instance, building materials and ingredients complemented one another to maintain continuity. (2) Two collaboration methods were generally used. The first is the application of unified training, family teaching, or mentorship systems to actuate collaboration construction. The second is the application of sharing, exchanging, and transacting to satisfy basic needs. (3) In terms of the organization framework, professionals were typically seniors, fathers, or artisans, and semi-professionals were younger protgs. Professionals and semi-professionals assumed technical tasks, while non-professionals were responsible for manual labor; this formed a collaboration system.