Roland Snooks

Roland Snooks

Postgraduate Award

Media Profile

“Innovative architecture can be a profound driver of economic development. It has the potential to dramatically influence Australia’s future urban environment and raise our country’s profile as a dynamic centre for new ideas.”

Roland Snooks has won a Fulbright Postgraduate Award and will conduct research at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University in New York. His research is based around a theoretical investigation and its experimental application to the generation of architectural and urban forms, using processes from the complex sciences. Roland said ‘[I] aim to create architecture that is generated from the complex systems in which we live rather than producing architecture as imposed objects’.

Roland is a graduate of Applied Science in Environmental Design from the University of Canberra and Architecture from the RMIT University with First Class Honours. He is also the co-founder of the experimental architecture studio, “Kokkugia”.

Architecture is currently undergoing rapid change driven by advances in software and materials. These advances are opening avenues for innovative design research, which will have a significant impact on the practice of architecture.

Roland’s design processes for generating architectural forms have attracted international interest, having been exhibited at a number of international exhibitions including the recent Beijing Architecture Biennale. His study at Columbia will be an expansion of design work undertaken through Kokkugia and at RMIT involving the development of innovative design methodologies. These methodologies incorporate techniques based on artificial intelligence and animation software in digital design processes. The development of these processes and their application to the urban environment have been predicated on Roland’s belief that successful public spaces are those that emerge from the ways in which people crowd, interact, and respond to buildings and spaces, rather than being deterministically prescribed.

Roland aims to pursue his interest in experimental architecture and its application to established environments and intends to further the development of Australia’s profile in experimental design on the world stage. Columbia University and New York City will provide Roland with an opportunity to explore architecture in an extreme urban environment. Ultimately, the study of such urban environments will have significant implications for the growth and development of Australian cities.

Since graduating from RMIT Roland has worked for a several of Australia’s leading innovative architectural practices, contributing to projects such as; a proposal for the World Trade Centre in New York and the Centre for Ideas at the Victorian College of the Arts.