This is a project about outdoor rooms and learning. The Centre for Higher Education Studies (CHES) is in South Yarra, adjacent to both Chapel Street and Melbourne High School.  The brief sought to establish a centre providing high-achieving Victorian government school students access to state-of-the-art learning spaces, specialist facilities and leading expertise in order to help them realise their potential. CHES is designed to accommodate 325 students across five levels and includes a rooftop external learning space, new ground level gardens and a 275 seat auditorium. The design of the building addresses its urban context, providing a public facing address to Chapel St precinct and a calm, park-like interface with Melbourne High. Between the two, a full height atrium is embedded within the centre of the building, providing natural light and ventilation to the deep floor plate. Covered with a transparent and lightweight inflatable roof, the atrium provides a ‘heart’ to which the learning spaces connect with soaring tree ferns creating a canopy at ground for incidental gathering. The roof of the building provides space for outdoor learning and teaching under the shelter of elevated photovoltaic cells and surrounded by native and endemic planting which grows up and through rod screens to form immersive grottos for study.