Gehry's Guggenheim Abu Dhabi ‘orphaned'; tributes pour in for visionary

Frank Gehry’s death at 96 has sparked tributes across the world, but in the UAE the loss is felt most strongly on Saadiyat Island, where the architect’s final museum design is rising into its last construction phase.

- Haneen Dajani [e-mail]

Guggenheim Abu Dhabi - Frank Gehry's largest museum project. Frank Gehry

Apostolos Kyriazis, Associate Professor of Architecture and Urbanism at Abu Dhabi University, said Gehry’s passing leaves the long-awaited Guggenheim Abu Dhabi “orphaned”, even as the project moves steadily towards its expected 2026 opening.

“Frank Gehry has been a ‘starchitect’—a person that becomes recognisable in a much larger circle than its mere genre, to the degree of a pop star,” he said. “He belongs to this generation of dreamers... that assisted architecture to blur yet another boundary. Its form, its outline.”

Kyriazis, who has been teaching Gehry’s work for years, said the architect reshaped how students in the UAE understand form, space and the potential of digital design. “His buildings dance. They are light, elastic, and swing on the wind,” he explained.

“There are no more edges and outlines. The form and the mould have exploded into a thousand pieces... Only windows are left to remind us of the inner rhythm, the programme, the need.