[1] Though born in Helsinki, Kari Jormakka's family soon afterwards moved to the city of Lappeenranta, where he spent his childhood.

Kari Jormakka's main theoretical position is characterized by studies in the ontology of architecture, defining the constructed nature of buildings as works of interpretation.

As such a work may then be significantly determined by the period when it was created, a position that Jormakka critiqued through theories of Zeitgeist primarily associated with Friedrich Hegel and, in regard to modernist works, Arthur C. Danto.

In "Eyes that do not see" (2011), the last published work during his lifetime, Jormakka applied these ideas to the theory of Functionalism best associated with the thinking of architect Le Corbusier and his fellow functionalists.

In 2020 a Festschrift and Webfestschrift were published in honour of Kari Jormakka by the University of Tampere in Finland, titled "What, if anything, is a rabbit?