In the rush to draw a line under the age of the starchitect, we're at risk of losing more than we think

The starchitect era is coming to an end but, like it or not, architecture still needs powerful individuals, writes Owen Hopkins.

The age of the starchitect is over. At least that's what critics have been saying for over a decade now.

But 2025 perhaps marked the moment when this prognostication finally came true as architecture lost an unprecedented number of its leading figures, among them Frank Gehry, Bob Stern, Terry Farrell, Nicholas Grimshaw, Ricardo Scofidio, Léon Krier and David Childs.