A shelter in disguise 

What do you do with perfectly good space when planning legislation gets in the way? If you're anything like London-based design and architecture studio PUP, you ventilate the creativity.

In a playful subversion of permitted development rights, H-VAC is a rooftop pavilion that appears from the outside as an oversized air-duct system. Built around a sturdy wooden frame with cladding shingles cut from reclaimed Tetra-Pak printed rolls, the structure includes a rooftop garden, a small room and benches, allowing up to 6 people to enjoy the elevated views over the nearby canal. PUP envisage H-VAC as the first of many guerrilla habitation initiatives of London’s roofspace, producing a landscape of rooftop structures akin to New York’s famous city water towers.