The construction of the enigma in architecture

This thesis aims, through the study of the term “enigma” applied to architecture, to establish the conditions for a work to be capable of standing as such and to study the consequences this entails. It therefore proposes to reveal a method of knowledge: one that is born from the hidden, from what transcends, from uncertainties, from fiction. The basis of this thesis is José Ángel Valente’s poetic theory, of undoubted value, and, as it aims to demonstrate, applicable to the knowledge of architecture, in the conviction that it is in part art and poetry. To this end, the basic lines of this poetics are studied and applied to a kaleidoscope of architectural examples, chosen to touch on many areas, scales, and places, thus seeking to universalize it. The thesis is structured in three large chapters (Three Lessons of Darkness, Praise of the Fragment, Letters from Exile) which, born from Valente’s poetics, group, order and give meaning to the chosen examples and enunciate architecture as an enigma.