Peter Downsbrough wrote Roles/Architectonics in response to his first visit to Poland for the exhibition Construction in Process in Lodz, October 1981.

It was first presented as a paper on the invitation of  ICSAC, Internationaal Centrum voor Structuuranalyse en Constructivisme in Brussels, June 1, 1982. The paper was given with the accompanying photographs and drawings in the form of b/w slides.

In September 1983, it was published as a book, with a foreword by Xavier Douroux.

In 2009, the slide projection and the accompanying text were included in the exhibition STILL/ MOVING/STILL at Cultuurcentrum Knokke-Heist, curated by Marc Glöde.