Glazing at this concrete Santa Fe home by American studio Specht Architects offers expansive views of distant mountains, while casting shadow patterns across interior walls. More about Specht Architects orients recessed New Mexico house towards desert vistas
American studio Hazelbaker Rush has created a mountainside residence where the lower levels blend into the rocky site, while the bright white upper volume stands out in contrast. More about Volcanic stone contrasts with white stucco at Texas desert home by Hazelbaker Rush
This stone villa in Arizona by Los Angeles architect Marwan Al-Sayed was conceived as a succession of interior and exterior spaces that are organised around a central courtyard. More about Limestone walls define sequence of courtyards at Arizona desert home by Marwan Al-Sayed
Lance O'Donnell of o2 Architecture has overseen the completion of two dwellings in Palm Springs – a contemporary home he designed, and a never-built residence by famed mid-century modernist architect Al Beadle. More about Modernist desert homes by o2 Architecture and Al Beadle complete in Palm Springs
The inaugural Desert X art festival is underway in Southern California, where visitors are using Instagram to share images of installations including an entirely mirrored cabin and a seemingly infinite tunnel into the earth. More about Instagram users capture Desert X installations in California's Coachella Valley
American artist Doug Aitken has built a small house-shaped structure, clad top-to-bottom in mirrors, in the desert outside Palm Springs. More about Doug Aitken installs entirely mirrored cabin in the Southern Californian desert
We've rounded up 10 desert houses that make the most of their situations in inhospitable landscapes, including a holiday home in Egypt and a spacious dwelling on the outskirts of Marrakech. More about 10 desert houses that make the most of arid landscapes
A cluster of mono-pitched volumes clad in earthy pre-weathered steel shelters a mini oasis at the centre of this cultural facility in Chile's Atacama Desert. More about Rusty steel wedges surround desert garden in Chile's Atacama Desert
American studio Ibarraro Rosano Design Architects has elevated parts of this family dwelling off the parched ground in response to the client's request for no steps. More about Accessible Arizona home by Ibarraro Rosano is lifted above the desert landscape
Architect Rasem Kamal has proposed a network of burrow-like spaces that would sprawl out beneath a UNESCO-protected valley in the Jordanian desert. More about Rasem Kamal proposes warren of subterranean services for Jordan's Wadi Rum
The 2016 Burning Man festival is taking place this week in Nevada's Black Rock Desert, where New York-based creative director PieterJan Mattan has photographed his highlights from this year's event (+ slideshow). More about The best temporary structures from Burning Man festival 2016
Artists and writers wanting to play out a "desert fantasy" can rent a tiny sleeping pod at a remote campsite in southern California, which looks like a scene from a sci-fi film (+ slideshow). More about Tiny camping pods by Andrea Zittel serve as a creative refuge in the California desert
American firm Sparano + Mooney Architecture has covered a family home in Utah with hundreds of weathering steel plates to give the exterior a textured appearance (+ slideshow). More about Sparano + Mooney clads Utah residence in hundreds of scale-like steel shingles
An expansive terrace provides a meditation space at this weekend residence and spiritual retreat in the Utah desert, which US firm Imbue Design completed using stone-filled gabions for some of the external walls (+ slideshow). More about Gabion cages filled with volcanic stone support meditation platform at Utah spiritual retreat
Students in a design-build programme at the University of Utah have completed a studio building on a remote campus in the desert where they live and work for part of the year (+ slideshow). More about Architecture students create studio building in rural Utah using recycled materials
Arizona studio DUST has created a desert home south of Tucson using volcanic residue to form rammed-concrete walls (+ slideshow). More about DUST uses "lava-crete" to create monolithic desert house in Arizona
Architecture studios Rede Arquitetos and Croquis Projetos have completed the first building of a new university campus in Crateús, Brazil: an administration block that spans an access road to the site (+ slideshow). More about Slatted roof casts dramatic shadows over gateway to new university campus in Brazil
This stack of mirrored boxes modelled on the biblical Tower of Babel is programmed to slowly rotate, reflecting changing views of the Iranian desert terrain and sky (+ movie). More about Babel Tower spins to reflect Iran's desert landscape
Stones from surrounding mountains and bricks from a local kiln were used to build this house bordering a desert in Peru, so it appears "like a new layer on the landscape" (+ slideshow). More about Rafael Freyre uses natural and local materials to connect House in Azpitia with its setting
Later this week, 70,000 people will converge on a temporary city in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada. Burning Man founder Larry Harvey told Dezeen about the "stunning achievement" of creating a high-density, car-free festival in a remote and inhospitable landscape (+ slideshow + transcript). More about Burning Man "needed urban design because it's a city" says founder Larry Harvey