J ul 2 00 2 Crossed complexes , and free crossed resolutions for amalgamated sums and HNN - extensions of groups ∗

The category of crossed complexes gives an algebraic model of CW-complexes and cellular maps. Free crossed resolutions of groups contain information on a presentation of the group as well as higher homological information. We relate this to the problem of calculating non-abelian extensions. We show how the strong properties of this category allow for the computation of free crossed resolutions for amalgamated sums and HNN-extensions of groups, and so obtain computations of higher homotopical syzygies in these cases.