On the top floor of an eight-story building, this tidy 55m² one-bedroom apartment basks in sunlight throughout almost the entire day. It’s perhaps the uninterrupted light that emphasises the starkness of an almost all-black kitchen, designed by architect My-Linh Tôn of Anthropie. The architect dubbed this project the ‘Black Box’, using the kitchen as the architectural anchor for the entire renovation.

Instead of blocking the kitchen off from the rest of the apartment, Tôn installed atelier-style windows that open out onto the living room, creating a partially open kitchen. The minimal black and white colour palette is repeated in the living room, where the owners’ black couch and cushions are anchored by a poetic, pendant lamp by French brand Georges.