The East End is one of the poorer parts of London, and housing estates are prevalent. In the middle of the numerous apartment towers is Broadway Market, a small oasis consisting of cafés, boutiques, bookshops and traditional fish and vegetable shops. This new black, asymmetrical monolith – its two upper levels slightly oblique – stands on a side street just just a few buildings away. The structure contains six apartments and two small retail units – a higher density than the buildings surrounding it. The openings are distributed freely across the rendered facade, whose surface evokes associations with igneous rock. The wood-aluminium windows open outward and both the caps and the operable sashes have unusually slender frames.