A team of scientists in the UK have developed a biodegradable construction material made from desert sand – a resource that has until now been useless for construction. More
A symposium taking place at Dutch Design Week later this month will discuss the rapid depletion of the world's sand reserves, which could leave supplies of the high-quality sand used in the glass industry exhausted within 20 years. More
Design studio Atelier NL is calling on people to send them sand from around the world for a project they will present as ambassadors at this year's Dutch Design Week. More
These bowls are formed by a robot that injects paths of resin into sand-filled containers, forming solidified objects that are then dug out like ancient artefacts (+ movie). More
Layers of sand that resemble a mountainous landscape will gradually move and change shape for the duration of this installation by Mexican architect Frida Escobedo for skincare brand Aesop's New York pop-up shop. More
Edinburgh College of Art student Peter Trimble has built a portable machine for manufacturing furniture from sand, urine and bacteria (+ slideshow). More
Dezeen and MINI World Tour: in this movie filmed at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, artist Gijs van Bon shows us his machine called Skryf, which prints a trail of sand behind it to form letters on the ground. More
Design Miami 2013: giant mound of sand appears to support an aluminium roof at New York studio Formlessfinder's Tent Pile installation outside this year's Design Miami fair, which opens to the public today (+ slideshow). More
Design Miami 2013: the entrance pavilion for the Design Miami collectors' fair in December will comprise a mound of sand with an aluminium roof perched on top. More
Californian designer Chad Wright has made a sandcastle mould of a typical American house to recreate post-war suburbia on the beach (+ slideshow). More
To prove that germs aren't all bad, Paris-based studio Bold-design came up with an activity kit that uses bacteria to turn sand from the beach into stone souvenirs (+ slideshow). More
Dezeen archive: this week one of our most popular stories was about a robot that builds architectural structures from sand (bottom left), so our latest archive is all about sand. See all all the stories »
Students from Barcelona's Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia have built a robotic 3D printer that creates architectural structures from sand or soil (+ movie). More
Stars are printed in the sand by a tractor as it drags a giant roller back and forth across the beach, then left to fade at the mercy of footsteps and the tide in this installation by Swedish artist Gunilla Klingberg. More
Dezeen Wire: discarded bottles sourced from hotels, restaurants, homes and foreign embassies are being filled with sand and used as bricks to create curved-walled houses in a Nigerian village - BBC
The bottles are bound together with mud resulting in durable walls that are sustainable, cost-effective and provide insulation from the sun's heat. The resulting buildings are also bullet-proof – a useful benefit in an area plagued by violence. An estate of 25 houses is currently being built with plans for a school to follow.
See our previous story on a house made from sand bags in South Africa.
Qubique 2011: Tel Aviv designer Nir Meiri uses desert sand to create these tactile moulded lights. More
Vienna Design Week 2011: a rotating arm deposits spirals of quartz sand on the showroom floor at crystal company Lobmeyr in Vienna this week, thanks to Canadian designer Philippe Malouin. More
These vases made of sand are shaped according to the principles of an old Japanese game. More
Dezeen Screen: this movie by Royal College of Art graduate Markus Kayser shows his Solar Sinter 3D-printing machine at work in the desert, making glass objects by melting sand with sunlight. Watch the movie »
Stockholm 2011: ECAL graduate Vanessa Hordies has created this bedside lamp that works like an hour glass to gradually dim the light by covering it in sand. More