Moving away from the substantive conception of architecture as an identifiable object of research, this thesis develops a processual approach based on the concept of architectural modality. Drawing on Martin Heidegger’s ontology of disclosure, it redefines modality from a descriptive attribute of an object to a condition of intelligibility that determines how it comes to be as it is. Architectural modality thus does not refer to a property of an architectural object, but to a structure of self-disclosure through which architectural intelligibility is continuously (re)constituted. This structure is articulated in terms of the internal differentiation of condition, process and event, which enables the recursive organisation of architectural intelligibility. To account for the epistemic agency inherent in architectural modality, architectural research is proposed as an intransitive mode of enquiry. The thesis proceeds through two converse lines of research which disclose complementary aspects of architectural modality. In line with John Hejduk’s own description of his pedagogical and projective work as ‘stoic researches’, and Franz Kafka’s literary production as akin to the unfinished, burrowing ‘investigation’ of his protagonist, the ‘old architect’, both bodies of work are read as sustained practices in which architecture operates as a medium of ongoing probing and self-reconfiguration. For Hejduk, architecture emerges as an immanent method of enquiry rather than a means of producing predetermined objects; method, in the sense of modality, is not subordinate to work, but the work itself becomes the event of the method, the critical operation of which continually testifies to and reiterates its own condition of intelligibility. The same non-closure of modality structures Kafka’s work, in which the central theme of architecture is consistently compromised; no longer a stable form or presence, it breaks down into an internally reflexive, self-producing process that facilitates the very narrative structure of the story. In both analyses, what is demonstrated are the productive processes by which architectural modality is sustained beyond the objecthood of architecture. Through these investigations, the thesis advances a poietics of architectural research that recuperates the etymological meaning of research as ‘turning around’. As an alternative to the conventional, linear production of architectural knowledge, the spiralling movement of the research as proposed manifests architectural modality itself, the modulations of which are architecturally maintained rather than argumentatively resolved.

Sokbom is a registered architect (AKB) and holds a BArch from Hanyang University and an MA in Architecture from ABK Stuttgart. Sokbom is interested in the disciplinary language of architecture as a means of exploring its epistemic integrity beyond historical context. His work explores the intersection of architectural thought and design history, literary language and philosophical enquiry, seeking to break down the divide between theory and practice, and between different disciplines. His aim is to cultivate an academic environment that advances an integrative praxis as a mode of critical reflection, poetic expression and disciplinary renewal.