What happens when an architect is indulged by a client to give in to his wildest imagination? This is the amazing story of a commission that went through nearly a decade of evolution and never saw the light of day - a brief for a home that instead ended up spawning a museum and a concert hall.

When Peter Lewis, an American insurance magnate commissioned leading architect Frank Gehry to design his home in 1986, little did he expect that over nine years, the $5 million suburban home would escalate into an $80 million dollar mansion before being cancelled. Nor did he have any idea that the house would provide the genesis for ideas that were later transformed into the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.

Frank Gehry was already a key player in the burgeoning field of American experimental architecture. This relatively modest commission could not have been more routine as designing exotic contemporary houses was the mainstay of his practice. But the Lewis House went beyond anyone's expectations, transforming Gehry's talent into a wholly original artistic vision.

This fascinating documentary explores the development of Gehry's ideas - from the original box like village to the incredible fluid style of the final versions that pushed new boundaries in design and engineering. Changes in form and material became increasingly dramatic. At some point, the Lewis House ceased to be one house and became dozens of houses, each a masterpiece in itself, linked unwittingly to the greatest theme and variations in the history of architecture.

Narrated by Jeremy Irons.

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View some images of Frank Gehry's buildings

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