Adventurous Vents

A Journey through the Ventilation Shafts of Britain

Lucy Lavers, Judy Ovens, Suzanna Prizeman

$92.95 $78.68

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Particular Books
02 November 2025

Architectural structure & design; Public buildings: civic, commercial, industrial; City & town planning - architectural aspects

A spectacularly beautiful gazetteer to some of the UK's strangest, most charismatic and most useful structures

At the heart of the modern world lie ventilation shafts. We may not notice them, but wherever there are tunnels, sewers, mines, car parks and energy stations under our feet, vents will be doing vital work keeping them cool and fume-free.

Vents come in a wonderful and inventive variety of forms. This book celebrates them both in their own right as intriguing individual structures, and as an innovative way to tell the story of Britain's subterranean industrial development from the eighteenth century to the present day.

Here are one hundred of the most interesting ventilation shafts, dotted around Britain, sometimes in the most surprising places. You'll find them masquerading as sculptures and small buildings, adorned with fine details or displaying their purpose with confidence.

Whether you're inspired to take off in search of them, or just to admire them from your armchair, vents are fabulous objects. By putting them - perhaps for the very first time - centre-stage, Adventurous Vents celebrates a highly unusual but exciting architectural form.

By: Lucy Lavers, Judy Ovens, Suzanna Prizeman
Imprint: Particular Books
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 246mm, Width: 173mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 500g
ISBN: 9780241661178
ISBN 10: 024166117X
Pages: 160
Publication Date: 02 November 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Lucy Lavers, Judy Ovens and Suzanna Prizeman co-founded the architecture education charity Our Hut through which they deliver inspiring school and community projects focused on the built environment. Their previous book, Inventive Vents- A Gazetteer of London's Ventilation Shafts, was the legacy of a London-centred project and led to this Britain-wide investigation of ventilation shafts, Adventurous Vents. In addition to being educators, Judy Ovens and Suzanna Prizeman are art historians and Lucy Lavers is a practising architect with Thomson Lavers Architects.