“If buildings could talk,” asks acclaimed German director Wim Wenders, “what would they say about us?”

For his latest project, Cathedrals of Culture, Wenders invited five contemporaries to join him in the 3D architectural exploration of astonishing buildings around the world. In the first part of this weekend’s double-bill, Danish director Michael Madsen immerses us somewhere we would never otherwise be allowed to visit: Halden Prison in southern Norway, widely acknowledged as the world’s most humane prison and a masterstroke of Scandinavian design.

Although over 240 of Norway’s highest-security inmates including Anders Breivik are incarcerated there, its indoor and outdoor spaces are intended to feel as unlike a prison as possible, with en-suite showers, shared living rooms and jogging paths meandering through the woods.

“The forest and the landscape is visible from the cells, from the common areas, and the long hallways,” explain Rikke Hansen and Arne Vejbæk, partners at Erik Møller Architects who worked on the project from 2002 to its opening by King Harald V in 2010. “In this way you can follow seasonal changes, hear a bird sing and smell the wet leaves. Nature is part of the stimulation of the senses, and contributes to the rehabilitation of the inmates.”

Dean Kissick contributes to i-D, Love and the Guardian.