Wim Wenders takes a 3D journey into Peter Zumthor’s quiet monumentality

Peter Zumthor peeps into a model of one of his projects in a scene of "From Inside Out". Venice Film Festival

In his new 3D documentary, Wim Wenders offers an immersive exploration of Swiss architect Peter Zumthor's remarkable body of work. Following the film's premiere at the Venice Film Festival, Swissinfo sat down with Zumthor and Wenders to discuss this unique collaboration at the crossroads of cinema and architecture.

Basel-born Zumthor does not initially come across as a typical subject for a documentary. Humble, reserved, and an observant craftsperson, he emphasises very early in our conversation that he is only interested in making buildings.  

Yet watching Wim Wenders’ new film, From Inside Out – The Architecture of Peter Zumthor, he emerges as an alchemist of our times, creating transcendent spatial experiences out of unadorned wood, concrete, and stone. 

Wenders and Zumthor first collaborated on Wenders’ short film Notes From a Day in the Life of an Architect, made for the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale. After offering a glimpse into Zumthor’s vision and methods within the confines of his modest studio in Haldenstein in the canton of Graubünden, Wenders carried his exploration further with From Inside Out. 

Shot over the course of 14 years, it is a cinematic endeavour whose ambition is worthy of the care and diligence with which the architect oversees the implementation of his designs.

Imaginary residents 

In the documentary, Wenders roughly follows the chronology of Zumthor’s career, referring to him as “a great partner to look at architecture, as he’s a perfectionist who dedicates a lot of time to the purpose of a place.”  

Starting with the shelter Zumthor designed for Roman excavations in Chur, the film spans his decades-long career, first through early masterworks such as Saint Benedict Chapel – which channels traditional simplicity through its wooden structure – and Therme Vals in Graubünden, renowned thermal baths carved in exquisite harmony with the surrounding mountainous landscape. 

Zumthor’s “Caplutta Sogn Benedetg” (St. Benedict’s chapel, in Romansch) in the village of Sumvit. KEYSTONE/Arno Balzarini

Through Wenders’s attentive and graceful camerawork, the viewer can see that Zumthor’s designs are deeply rooted in Switzerland’s Alpine landscape and culture. “It is not difficult for me to understand places; I can easily find something which I can relate to,” Zumthor says. Yet he adds: “Some people can live in different apartments all over the world, but not me! I like to be where my roots are. And you know what I also like? To travel! To be able to travel and have a place that I can go back to.” 

Interior of Zumthor’s Zinc Mine Museum in Sauda, Norway. Aldo Amoretti

Zumthor’s later works, commissioned in international contexts, open viewers up to a range of sensory experiences. The elegant austerity of the Bruder Klaus Field Chapel in Germany, the dark and imposing interiors of the Zinc Mine Museum despite the buildings’ compact scale, and, perhaps most impressive and haunting among them, the Steilneset Memorial, which commemorates the victims of the witch trials on the Norwegian island of Vardø – all enter into a close dialogue with the histories of their respective locations, whose resonances continue to be felt in the present.  

Wenders traverses these evocative architectural sites through narrative fragments revolving around guests, craftspeople, artists, and imaginary residents from the past, whose presences feel almost like folk stories that the buildings confide in us.

The Steilneset Memorial in the town of Vardø (Norway) commemorates the trial and execution in 1621 of 91 people for witchcraft. Ken Schluchtmann

Full dimension 

One of the most striking aesthetic components of the film is the heightened spatial awareness and sense of immersion established by the 3D medium. While Zumthor seems rather indifferent to this technique, stating that he simply left that decision to Wenders, the filmmaker himself – having now shot 10 films in 3D – looks at it less as a technology than as a storytelling tool. “If you give the eyes a little more time to penetrate the room, I think 3D can be a very poetic and meditative medium,” he says. 

His past experiences also made it easier for him to assess the spatial particularities of each site they shot. “I already knew the speed at which a camera should move through a building so that the movements appear relaxing rather than painful, and the 3D process natural rather than obtrusive.”

Zumthor, left, and film director Wenders, right, at the Palazzo Trevisan, Venice, during the latest Venice Film Festival. Keystone / Jean-Christophe Bott

Wenders and his director of photography would first visit the buildings and compare the light in both the morning and the evening – a method that led him to categorise Zumthor’s buildings as either “morning buildings” or “evening buildings.” However, as much as they tried to find the right moment, the shooting process was not without its share of unpleasant surprises.  

Wenders mentions the Wyss Museum of the Beyeler Foundation, which recently opened to the public on September 26, 2026, as one such example. “The building is made from limestone. When it’s hit by the sun, it shines so brightly that you almost have to squint your eyes,” he says.  

To his disappointment, however, the only day he could shoot there was dull and rainy. He explains how Zumthor’s vision saved the shoot: “Almost like a little miracle, Peter said, ‘Well, this is my childhood. Do you see all these birds, the little pond in the soft rain and the airplanes over our heads? That is the soundscape of my childhood.’”

Aerial view of the extended Fondation Beyeler complex in Riehen, which was recently inaugurated. Keystone / Georgios Kefalas

The architecture of feelings 

Zumthor was surprised by how personal the film ended up being. “In a way, I found myself looking at my own life,” he comments, adding that he is also pleased that the film has become a declaration of love for his wife, Annalisa Zumthor-Cuorad, who died earlier this year.  

Recalling the sequences shot in the Leis Houses in Vals – three vacation houses, one of which the architect designed for his wife –Wenders notes the importance of these buildings for Zumthor: “The house was empty after his wife had a stroke, but Peter wanted me to film it because nobody in Switzerland had ever built a house like this before.”

The Therme Vals, a spa in the village of Vals in Zumthor’s native canton of Graubünden, is one of the architect’s most popular works. KEYSTONE/Martin Ruetschi

While the documentary predominantly centres on Zumthor’s accomplishments – the latest and largest to date being the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) – Wenders also revisits his unbuilt project for the Topography of Terror Documentation Centre, which the city of Berlin decided to abandon after construction had already begun. Regarding his shelved design, Zumthor simply repeats what he already says in the film: that his project would have been good for Berlin, adding that it was purely a political decision. 

The Pritzker Prize-winning architect is widely known for his strong ethics and moral principles. “I cannot simply make buildings as embellishments,” Zumthor says, recounting how he rejected a carte blanche offer he received from a group of “rich and cultivated” Koreans: “I’m an architect. I need a good purpose. If they would tell me to make a house for refugees, I would take it up tomorrow.”

Zumthor delivers a speech after receiving the Pritzker Prize, also known as the “Nobel for architecture”, during a ceremony in Buenos Aires, May 29, 2009. EPA/Leo La Valle

Politics of Wenders 

Zumthor’s insistence on the function and value of architecture is what prompts Wenders to consider From Inside Out a political film. The German filmmaker, who has faced harsh criticism since his declaration about needing to stay out of politics while serving as jury president at the Berlinale this year, explains why Zumthor’s moral position is crucial: “Most buildings we see today are political because they are hostile and don’t provide healthy environments to work or live in. Peter makes political choices. He only wants to build what he deems necessary – which excludes 90% of the offers he gets.” 

Living room of Zumthor’s Secular Retreat House in Devon (UK). Boutique Homes

Despite the emphasis on the common good in Zumthor’s designs, one still wonders whether the film suffers from a certain class blindness regarding architecture, as many of these sites are mostly accessible to privileged citizens of the first world.  

Not quite seeking to convince us otherwise, Wenders points to Zumthor’s Secular Retreat in Devon as an alternative, which can be rented for stays ranging from three days to one week. “It offers guests the opportunity to experience the landscape and the architecture in a unique way,” Wenders says. “It is a beautiful idea to have people experience contemporary architecture, even if they can never build a house like this nor live in one.”

Edited by Catherine Hickley/ac