UTSOA Lecture Series: Roland Snooks, "Behavioral Formation," April 21, 2014

The emergence of complexity theory has shifted the conceptualization of form from the macro scale to a concern for the operation of the complex systems that underlie formation. This inherently organizational understanding of form has been the basis for this design research and the development a behavioral design methodology. This behavioral approach draws from the logic of swarm intelligence and operates through the self-organization of multi-agent systems. Designing through non-linear behavioral systems challenges the hierarchies that are embedded within architecture, and has radical implications for the generation of architectural form, organization, structure, tectonics, aesthetics and materiality.

Roland Snooks is a partner of the experimental research collaborative Kokkugia, and director of the architecture practice Studio Roland Snooks. Roland's architectural design research is focused on behavioral processes of formation that draw from the logic of swarm intelligence and operate through multi-agent algorithms. In addition to his work with algorithmic design Roland directs the Architectural Robotics Lab at RMIT University. He holds a masters in advanced architectural design from Columbia University where he studied on a Fulbright scholarship after graduating from RMIT University (B.Arch). Roland is currently a lecturer in architecture at RMIT University and holds a visiting position at the University of Pennsylvania, having previously directed design studios and seminars at the Pratt Institute, SCI-Arc, UCLA and USC.