Newi: Plas Coch (former Denbighshire Technical College)

Plas Coch, formerly Denbighshire Technical College

This technical college, built in Welsh sand-faced brick with artificial stone dressings, has a concrete frame with steel framing to the assembly hall, gymnasium, workshops and tower. Roofs are flat (concrete) or low pitched. The design deliberately separates different functional areas to limit noise, dividing administrative and teaching spaces and providing the building department, gymnasium and music department in separate blocks.

The main building encloses three sides of a courtyard. The entrance faces east in a long, two-storied wing of rusticated brickwork. To the southeast is the projecting block containing the main lecture theatre and former exhibition hall. This block has a shallow curve to its southern elevation, decorated with Portland stone low relief panels representing the crafts by Darsie Rawlins. Running at right angles to the east of the entrance range, and set back from the lecture theatre wing, is William Aston Hall, a five-window range with lower ancillary blocks (green room, dressing rooms and similar) to the east. Its blind eastern elevation also carries low reliefs by Darsie Rawlins depicting music and the dramatic arts.

The rear range originally housed student common rooms, with offices and library on the first floor. Around 1992 this single-storied rear range was raised in height in similar style, following the original design's provision for such expansion. A refectory and canteen occupy a short wing running west of this range. The gymnasium and music department stand to the northeast, linked to the main building by a covered way. A long southwest wing contains the main teaching block, with rooms opening off a central corridor on each floor and terminating in an offset clock tower over a subsidiary entrance and stair hall. North of this runs the science wing, with a single-storied laboratory block projecting to the west. The construction department occupies a separate block to the northwest.

Continuous bands of fenestration characterise each floor, with simple projecting concrete cornices forming canopies over entrances. Glass-brick lights appear in stairs and as side and overlights to entrances.

Decorative finishes are largely confined to the entrance hall, which has tiled walls with stylised dragons, leeks and abstract representations of Welsh countryside, designed by Peggy Angus. William Aston Hall retains original fittings including a sloping floor and adjustable seating, with walls panelled in European ash and African walnut for acoustic resonance. Elsewhere the building originally relied on colour for decoration. Main corridors in teaching areas feature built-in lockers and suspended ceilings concealing service ducts, both part of the original design, along with acoustic tiles. Period details include iron staircase balustrades.