Granular Configurations. Sand, Materiality, and Planetary Urbanization
New Edited Volume and Book Launch by Michaela Büsse
Michaela Büsse, »Granular Configurations: Sand, Materiality, and Planetary Urbanization«, K. Verlag, Berlin 2025. Book design: K. Verlag with Wolfgang Hückel and Katharina Tauer
Congratulations to Cluster Member Michaela Büsse on her new edited volume! »Granular Configurations: Sand, Materiality, and Planetary Urbanization« explores the world’s most used — yet often overlooked — building material: sand. Bringing together voices from geography, geology, social sciences, art, and the humanities, the book traces how sand moves and transforms, resisting easy capture by political and ecological systems. From extractive practices and colonial legacies to fragile infrastructures and grassroots struggles, sand emerges here not just as a resource, but as an unstable force shaping the planetary urban condition.
»Granular Configurations«, published by K. Verlag Berlin and available in print and Open Access, is a result of the interdisciplinary workshop Politics and Poetics of Sand, which took place at the Cluster from 8 to 9 February 2023. It includes contributions by Lara Almarcegui, Darin Barney, Arpita Bisht, Yus Budiyono, Michaela Büsse, Jingru (Cyan) Cheng, Katherine Dawson, Jeff Diamanti, FRAUD (Francisco Gallardo & Audrey Samson), Muhammad Soufi Cahya Gemilang, Dingeman L.H. van der Haven, William Jamison, Lukas Ley, Michiel J. van der Meulen, Hannah Tollefson, Ian The, Chester K. Wentworth, Jerry Zee, Chen Zhan, and Rapti Siriwardane-de Zoysa.
On 27 November 2025 at 7 pm, there will be a book vernissage and conversation with Michaela and Kim Förster at Domushaus EG in Basel. In Berlin, the book launch will take place at Pro qm on January 16th, 2026, 7 pm.