He made buildings that looked like slouching drunks and quarrelling couples but it was the Spanish museum that secured his ‘starchitect’ status – a creation that became something of a curse

Frank Gehry once had a cameo in The Simpsons in which he designed buildings by scrunching up pieces of paper. There was a bit more to it than that, but from Prague to Panama City, his scrunched contours were instantly recognisable, expressed in an exuberant parade of buildings that cranked and slumped as if hit by a wrecking ball, or crashed and whirled like dervishes, defying laws of gravity and structural logic. Though Gehry, who has died aged 96, came of age in the era of modernism, it was as if he were physically incapable of drawing a straight line.

In his prime, Gehry’s architecture was a rebuff to modernist imperators such as Mies van der Rohe and his po-faced injunction, “less is more”. The American postmodern theorist and architect Robert Venturi turned it on its head, quipping “less is a bore”. It summed up the maximalist Gehry perfectly.

He made buildings that looked like slouching drunks and quarrelling couples but it was the Spanish museum that secured his ‘starchitect’ status – a creation that became something of a curse

Frank Gehry once had a cameo in The Simpsons in which he designed buildings by scrunching up pieces of paper. There was a bit more to it than that, but from Prague to Panama City, his scrunched contours were instantly recognisable, expressed in an exuberant parade of buildings that cranked and slumped as if hit by a wrecking ball, or crashed and whirled like dervishes, defying laws of gravity and structural logic. Though Gehry, who has died aged 96, came of age in the era of modernism, it was as if he were physically incapable of drawing a straight line.

In his prime, Gehry’s architecture was a rebuff to modernist imperators such as Mies van der Rohe and his po-faced injunction, “less is more”. The American postmodern theorist and architect Robert Venturi turned it on its head, quipping “less is a bore”. It summed up the maximalist Gehry perfectly.

He made buildings that looked like slouching drunks and quarrelling couples but it was the Spanish museum that secured his ‘starchitect’ status – a creation that became something of a curse

Frank Gehry once had a cameo in The Simpsons in which he designed buildings by scrunching up pieces of paper. There was a bit more to it than that, but from Prague to Panama City, his scrunched contours were instantly recognisable, expressed in an exuberant parade of buildings that cranked and slumped as if hit by a wrecking ball, or crashed and whirled like dervishes, defying laws of gravity and structural logic. Though Gehry, who has died aged 96, came of age in the era of modernism, it was as if he were physically incapable of drawing a straight line.

In his prime, Gehry’s architecture was a rebuff to modernist imperators such as Mies van der Rohe and his po-faced injunction, “less is more”. The American postmodern theorist and architect Robert Venturi turned it on its head, quipping “less is a bore”. It summed up the maximalist Gehry perfectly.

Sometimes I feel like the world is more afraid of me as a Palestinian refugee than it is afraid of the genocide and wars that create refugees in the first place

The world is big, yet it is forever shrinking for Gazans. In fact, it is as small as 3% of the size of an ever-diminishing strip of land, where the rest of Gaza City is being forcibly displaced, bombed and starved. But our rejection doesn’t end at Gaza’s “borders”.

It follows us everywhere.

Plestia Alaqad is an award-winning journalist and author

As the under-16s social media ban looms, Guardian Australia speaks to five 13 to 15-year-olds about what they will miss, and what government should be doing instead

Australia’s world-first social media ban for under-16s will begin in just a few days. Malaysia, Denmark and Norway are to follow suit and the European Union last week passed a resolution to adopt similar restrictions. As the world watches on, millions of Australian adolescents and their parents are wondering just what will actually change come 10 December.

Concerns around the negative impact social media use can have on the wellbeing of young people have been around since the quaint days of Myspace – long before those to be affected by the ban were even born.

Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads

Sometimes I feel like the world is more afraid of me as a Palestinian refugee than it is afraid of the genocide and wars that create refugees in the first place

The world is big, yet it is forever shrinking for Gazans. In fact, it is as small as 3% of the size of an ever-diminishing strip of land, where the rest of Gaza City is being forcibly displaced, bombed and starved. But our rejection doesn’t end at Gaza’s “borders”.

It follows us everywhere.

Plestia Alaqad is an award-winning journalist and author

As the under-16s social media ban looms, Guardian Australia speaks to five 13 to 15-year-olds about what they will miss, and what government should be doing instead

Australia’s world-first social media ban for under-16s will begin in just a few days. Malaysia, Denmark and Norway are to follow suit and the European Union last week passed a resolution to adopt similar restrictions. As the world watches on, millions of Australian adolescents and their parents are wondering just what will actually change come 10 December.

Concerns around the negative impact social media use can have on the wellbeing of young people have been around since the quaint days of Myspace – long before those to be affected by the ban were even born.

Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads

Sometimes I feel like the world is more afraid of me as a Palestinian refugee than it is afraid of the genocide and wars that create refugees in the first place

The world is big, yet it is forever shrinking for Gazans. In fact, it is as small as 3% of the size of an ever-diminishing strip of land, where the rest of Gaza City is being forcibly displaced, bombed and starved. But our rejection doesn’t end at Gaza’s “borders”.

It follows us everywhere.

Plestia Alaqad is an award-winning journalist and author

As the under-16s social media ban looms, Guardian Australia speaks to five 13 to 15-year-olds about what they will miss, and what government should be doing instead

Australia’s world-first social media ban for under-16s will begin in just a few days. Malaysia, Denmark and Norway are to follow suit and the European Union last week passed a resolution to adopt similar restrictions. As the world watches on, millions of Australian adolescents and their parents are wondering just what will actually change come 10 December.

Concerns around the negative impact social media use can have on the wellbeing of young people have been around since the quaint days of Myspace – long before those to be affected by the ban were even born.

Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads