After a three-week voting process involving over 150,000 readers, ArchDaily recently announced the winners of its 14th annual building list. BUZZ Studio, led by Zhuang Ziyu, was awarded the Best Religious Building of the Year for the Chamber Church in Qingdao Zangma Mountain. Selected from more than 4,500 buildings worldwide, it became one of the 15 Buildings of the Year for ArchDaily in 2023.

The Chamber Church aims to create a spatial container that both respects the past and looks towards the future, offering a religious experience while being accessible to secular sensibilities. The chapel is divided into upper and lower sections. The lower part features a semi-submerged space and an exit courtyard that connects with the surrounding landscape, embedding itself into the mountain linked to the plaza. This represents a connection to the ancient existence, embodying concealment. The upper part, the sanctuary itself, stands proudly between the mountains and waters, embodying the righteous spirit of heaven and earth, and spreading the gospel of creation, symbolizing revelation.

Within this interplay of revelation and concealment, on one hand, we look back at historical architectural archetypes, attempting to resonate with associated memories; on the other hand, we seek a timeless contemporary quality, even a sense of the future. The architecture endeavors to juxtapose or even merge this duality through the relationship between plans and sections.

Additionally, the Chamber Church won the 2022 Architizer A+ Awards for Best Façade Design and Best Use of Metal, as well as the Azure Awards People's Choice. It has been nominated for the Dezeen Awards, FRAME Awards, the World Architecture Festival (WAF), and the World Architecture News (WAN) Awards.