The Chamber Church aims to create a spatial container that both respects the past and looks towards the future. It shall provide a religious experience and secular touch. Looking backwards we find the archetypes of architectural associations in history. The design echoes the memories associated with them, but interprets them in a timeless modernity creating a sense of the future.

The architecture integrates this duality in plan and section.During the design process, we integrated different vernacular façade images of traditional churches.The derived base volume is then expressed through a series of slices, in order to reveal both the interaction of archetype and experiment, and the core issue associated with it: divinity and ritual.

The interior space of the assembly hall is a soft, flowing cavity that creates an interesting detachment from the sharp geometric exterior contours. This softness contrasts with the hardness of the exterior to create a visual interaction between the interior and exterior.

The 60 separate and gradual slices can be regarded as 60 independent sections.The sequential slices are introduced in a pure and modern way, whilst the gaps of the façade create various visual effects depending on the angle of the observer.Those gaps alsoallow the light to enter. Throughout the day, the changing angle of the sun, and its relation to the gaps, and interfaces create varying visual effects.

Taking advantage of the series of landscapes slopes that block the view behind the calm lake, we use that as a passive space to look at from inside the hall. In front of the church entrance, we create a "stage" to emphasize its central position.The landscape part of the exterior features an artificial lake to create privacy, while the open space of the plaza emphasizes the relation to the public.

Team:
Client: Sunac China Holdings Limited
Architectural and Interior Design: BUZZ/Büro Ziyu Zhuang
Principal Designer: Ziyu Zhuang, Fanshi Yu, Fabian Wieser, Na Li
Design Team: Mengzhao Xing, Jialin Song,Yingliu (Intern), Yi Liu, Dongdong  Chen, Weihong Dong, Yubing Chen, Zhendong Chen, Di Tian, Ruoyi Song, Nan Zhou (Intern), Lingwei Meng (Intern)
Construction Drawings: Qingdao Tengyuan Design Institute Co., Ltd.
Construction: Qingdao Jiuan Construction Groups 
Interior Construction Drawings: Gold Mantis Construction Decoration
Interior Construction: Ganghua International 
Landscape Design: ASPECT Studios
Landscape Construction: Guangzhou Yayue Landscape Construction Co., Ltd
Structure Consultant: Hejie Architectural Consultant 
Lighting Consultant: Puri Lighting Desgin (Fang Hu, Yanhui Li)
Curtain Wall Consultant: Forcitis
Steel Structure and Curtain Wall Construction: Shenyang Lidong Curtain Wall Decoration Co.,Ltd.
Main Materials: ALUCOBONDPLUS Aluminum Composite Material - ALUCOBOND,  GRG-Beijing Yongxinsheng International Architecture and construction Co.,Ltd.,  Low-EGlass - Tianjin Nanbo Energy-saving Glass Co., Ltd.

This is an impressing building. Located quietly in the small town of Qingdao Zangma Mountain, this beautiful and pure building complements the green hills and cypresses of the surrounding environment.

The light on the main facade is divided into three main levels. They use different intensities and colors to play their respective roles. The spotlight on the spire of the bell tower is the brightest, and here is also the skyline of the entire building; the next level is the entrance and the "hole" of the spire of the bell tower, the warm light overflows from the inside to the outside; while the quite light covers the facade on the first floor of the building.

The light on the spire of the bell tower of the chapel is the brightest. This is a highlight of sacred temperament, showing the direction of building to divinity. We conducted many rounds of lighting tests on site to confirm the most appropriate position of the floodlight. Floodlights project from both sides of the building, so that the light spot formed on the building surface will be more uniform. As the height of the illuminated surface is high, we chose a lamp with a power of 300W and an angle of 8° angle for light displaying. The installation of the lamps is close to the human, so we installed anti-glare honeycomb nets on the lamps, which greatly reduces the glare effect of lights on pedestrians.

We chose warm yellow to describe the entrance of the chapel that people pass by, and the "hole" on the spire of the chapel's bell tower. The reason why the warm color temperature is chosen is to make the building look "warmer", to increase people's sense of security, and to make the light of the building richer with more layers. We used linear light sources to conceal the “slices” of the lamps, so that while the light is evenly sprinkled on the “slices”, the lamps are not seen, achieving the effect of “seeing the light but not the lamps”. For the lamps here, we chose neon strips with silicone sleeves, the power is 10W/m, and the light-emitting surface emits light evenly, which can hide the lamp beads to the greatest extent.

The lamps are set between the divided "slices", and the appropriate lamp power and angle will illuminate each layer of the board. During the day, natural light enters the building through the gaps of these "slices", and when night falls, artificial light still starts here. We chose 4000K white light to express its purity and tranquility. To hide the lamps, we chose the underground lamps. The space scale here is small and it is relatively close to people, so the underground lamps need to be in the form of deep tubes, and the surface needs to be added with anti-glare honeycomb mesh to weaken the glare through these double measures. In order to express the "slice" as much as possible, and at the same time, to maintain the brightness not too high, we chose a lamp with a power of 12W and an angle of 10°.

The interior of the chapel continues the curved shape. We simulate the illuminance relationship of the space through illuminance calculation.

The arc shape in the space is warm and soft. We place the light at the turning point of the arc, so that the natural retreat of the light occurs naturally in the shape of the space. Since the installation surface is curved, ordinary downlights cannot meet the installation effect. After comparison, we have partially adopted frameless downlights with customized curved surface, so as to make sure the ceiling is as clean as possible.

Between the boards, in addition to the above-illuminated underground lights, there are also linear lamps. In this way, the shape of the chapel has been more accurately portrayed. There is a quiet water pool around the chapel. We did not set up a light source inside. At night, it is just a pure mirror reflecting the chapel and the activities of people in the chapel.