Frank Gehry, who has died aged 96, was one of the few architects whose buildings became part of global popular culture. From the glinting hulls of the Guggenheim Bilbao to his own house in Santa Monica, his work reshaped expectations of what a building could look like and what it could do for a city. He turned architecture into spectacle and, for better and worse, into a brand.

Over time his language hardened into a repertoire that clients could order almost off the shelf. The architect who once wrapped a cheap timber house in chain link and corrugated metal would end up providing the global art market and luxury brands with ever more elaborate vessels for culture and consumption. Yet for all the fame and the titanium billows, Gehry’s most lasting legacy may lie in earlier, smaller projects where the work still feels close to the ground.

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