It is easy to miss Christ Church Grammar School, hidden on the edge of Fawkner Park behind the elegant bluestone of Christ Church with its curiously spotty spire.

Although discreetly positioned within its heritage context, the new CCGS building cleverly accommodates a significant program of spaces. Using an unconventional strategy of locating learning spaces below ground level, and opening them to sunken courtyards and north facing voids an open airy learning environment has been created, which responds sensitively to the historic and religious context of the school.

CCGS provides a valuable and timely model for inner urban schools and new generation of learning environments for Christ Church Grammar School.