The Great Hall, Aberystwyth University

The Great Hall at Aberystwyth University is a Modernist building in the Brutalist style, characterised by highly expressive massing and the use of materials. It is constructed from reinforced concrete (both pre-cast and in situ), with aggregate panels of Cornish grey granite, bricks of matching colour, and large areas of steel-framed glazing.

The main volume is a large flat-roofed rectangle substantially glazed on the long west and east sides. The east side loses a floor in height due to stepped terrace landscaping. The taller flat-topped cuboid of the hall sits within this rectangular envelope, off centre to the south. Its upper raked galleries to west and east are expressed as overhanging granite cliff faces, sloping upwards and outwards and then vertically, which puncture through both the glass and the panelling on the long sides.

The west side faces the main piazza and has a recessed lower floor, originally designed to give a sheltered pedestrian route around the building, now largely glazed off in the middle to create a coffee shop. The lower ground floor plinth level is finished in vertical concrete strips resembling timber planks. A rectangular concrete slab portico, braced by two columns and cantilevered over the approach, marks the front entrance on the left side, where it aligns with stairs up on to the piazza. An entrance to the chapel is located on the right. The upper volume is clad in square and rectangular panels forming a grid that stretches vertically in the middle and compresses at the top and bottom. This frames a wide expanse of glazing with 80 vertical panes in two levels, the upper panes more than double the height of the lower panes except where they are cut short by the projecting mass of the gallery. The internal organisation of the foyer level, mezzanine and staircases is clearly visible through this glazing.

The east side is similar, without the plinth level, with glazing below the overhanging gallery and recessed doors directly into the Great Hall to both sides. The south side has a similar projecting upper mass, the vertical top part of which has four pane ribbon windows (replaced in uPVC) either side of a six-panel ventilator. All other projections internally and externally are blind. This overhang is framed by vertical and horizontal ribbon windows with a compressed ground floor window below and doors on either side. The left side door, on the south-west corner, is accessed by a cantilevered external staircase. The north side was originally mostly blind with a much smaller projecting overhang with vertical panel windows on either side, one of which has now become an internal corridor as part of the 1999 extensions.

The lower ground floor entrance from the piazza leads into a low ceilinged space with a classroom and ceramics gallery (formerly a cloakroom) to either side of a wide staircase leading up to the spacious foyer level. This is lit by the massive front glazing and dominated by the overhanging north gallery seating of the Great Hall, clad in the same aggregate panels as the exterior, though the sloping underside has been covered over with a fabric screen. Below this are two entrances into the floor level of the Great Hall, separated by an abstract cast aluminium sculptural artwork in three panels by David Tinker (1924–2000), head of Aberystwyth Art School from 1962 to 1986, the work commissioned by Dale Owen. A staircase with a middle landing leads from the foyer to the mezzanine level, which is wrapped against the north side of the building and connected to staircases up to the east and west side gallery seating.

The Great Hall auditorium is a flat square with panelled sides and raked upper gallery seating on three sides. Movable panels below the east gallery open to an area heavily glazed beyond (the only point where natural light can reach the hall interior). Both the square main floor space and the deep concrete square ceiling grid of the Great Hall reference Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple in Illinois of 1908, which like this building drew inspiration from the architecture of Welsh nonconformist chapels with its tiered gallery seating.

The chapel faith space is internally isolated on the lower ground floor, entered from the piazza at the end closer to the Bell Tower, with an interior mainly finished in brick. Above this are plant and kitchen rooms, which serve as the 'backstage' of the Great Hall.