Brad Pitt builds a temple to..Gerbils?

While it can safely be argued that several of Hollywood’s less prominent inmates have gone to the  dogs, Brad Pitt, it seems, has surrendered his sanity to a far smaller mammal: The gerbil.

Long known as a fan of all things architectural, Brad, 45, has just spent $90,000 designing and building a customized condo for his children’s new pets. Now installed at the $65-million family mansion in Provence, the luxury living quarters feature an intricate maze of tunnels, see-saws and platforms, making these rodents the most pampered pets on the planet.

“It’s incredibly complex and cost quite a lot,” a source told the UK’s The Sun. “But Brad’s more than happy with any activity that can combine his two passions – his kids and architecture.”

Back in 2005, Oklahoma-born Brad had an informal apprenticeship with the legendary Canadian architect, Frank Gehry, whose iconic designs include the Walt Disney concert hall in downtown L.A. This education propelled Brad to design a development for an ocean-side town in Great Britain, but this has yet to be built.

And this training has left its mark to this day, “Brad pores over architectural journals like most people pore over newspapers,” says our friend. “He had so much fun putting the run together with his kids Maddox, Zahara, Shiloh and Pax.