Director
Peter Rosen

Music extracts
JS Bach : Toccata & Fugue in D minor BWV 565 for organ, also in arrs. for orchestra and violin; Chorale from 'Easter Cantata' arr. orchestra; Courante from Partita No 5 for keyboard; Concerto in G minor for keyboard

Hindemith: 'Engelskonzert' and 'Grablegung' from Symphony 'Mathis der Maler'; Passacaglia from 'Nobilissima visione'

Tian Jiang: 'Tea Garden' from 'Shanghai Dream'


One of the outstanding architects of the 20th century, IM Pei has left his signature on many cityscapes and landscapes around the world, with landmark buildings such as the Louvre Pyramid, the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong, the Miho Museum near Kyoto, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and the East Building of the Washington National Gallery of Art. Now well into his 80s, he has enjoyed a long and successful career in a profession of high stakes and enormous costs, weathering changes in taste by eschewing fashionable trends and theories and finding originality in the time, the place and the problem presented by each commission. "For me architecture is something you do to serve a certain function. It's for people. It has to be something that somehow relates to life itself, to a particular time and place," says Pei.

Filmed with Pei in America, Hong Kong, Paris and Japan, and featuring a panoramic survey of his achievements as well as a wealth of archive material, this documentary gives a fascinating insight into his process of architectural design and construction. Along the way, he shares personal reflections on his boyhood in China, his studies in the United States, his love of the arts and his experiences with difficult and complex building projects. Pei's account of his life and work is illuminated by his engaging warmth, his humanitarian intellect and his integrity.

Pei was born in Souzhou in China in 1917, and went to the United States to study. He began work as an architect with developer William Zeckendorf, and soon found himself directing a staff of seventy-five in the regeneration of American cities. After creating his own company, one of his first achievements was the National Centre for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, a building that led Jacqueline Kennedy and J Carter Brown respectively to select him to design the Kennedy Library and the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The Kennedy Library was a heartbreaking experience for him, delayed endlessly and, ultimately, unsatisfactory to him. He candidly recounts this story, and the story of the disastrous serial breaking of the windows of the John Hancock Building in Chicago.