Granular Configurations: Attending to the Material Politics of Planetary Design

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Published: Jan 28, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7764/disena.28.Article.3
Keywords:
granularity, granular configurations, planetary design, materiality, material politics granularidad, configuraciones granulares, diseño planetario, materialidad, política material

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Michaela Büsse
School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Technische Universität Dresden
https://orcid.org/0009-0003-5270-4675

Abstract

This paper examines how planetary design is materially enacted through the granular politics of sand. Moving beyond abstract accounts of planetary entanglement, it traces how sand’s trajectories—across extraction zones, supply chains, and reclaimed coastlines—compose volatile and uneven urban futures. Drawing on research in Southeast Asia and the Netherlands, the paper shows how sand operates not merely as a construction input but as a medium of speculation, disruption, and socioecological harm. Through the lens of granular configurations, I develop a methodological framework that foregrounds friction, partiality, and multi-temporality in the making and unmaking of environments. This approach unsettles dominant narratives of design as coherent or systemically integrated, revealing instead its contingent, contested, and more-than-human formations. Attending to sand’s granular materiality opens new possibilities for situated, accountable, and reparative practices in an increasingly unstable world.

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How to Cite
Büsse, M. . (2026). Granular Configurations: Attending to the Material Politics of Planetary Design. Diseña, (28), Article.3. https://doi.org/10.7764/disena.28.Article.3
Issue
No. 28 (2026): The Planetary Condition: Designs, Coexistences, and Care to Reimagine Habitability (1st Issue)
Section
Original Articles (part 1)
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Author Biography

Michaela Büsse, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Technische Universität Dresden

Research Associate at the Chair of Digital Cultures, Dresden University of Technology, and an Associated Investigator at the Cluster of Excellence “Matters of Activity. Image Space Material,” Humboldt University of Berlin. She holds a PhD in Art and Design from the University of Arts Linz. After obtaining a BSc in Media and Communications from the University of Europe for Applied Sciences, she earned an MA in Design Research from the Zurich University of the Arts. Her research focuses on political ecology, human geography, environmental anthropology, ecological design, feminist STS, environmental media studies, and infrastructure studies. Recent publications include Granular Configurations: Sand, Materiality, and Planetary Urbanization (K. Verlag, 2025); “Built on Sand: Situating Extractive Economies in the Mekong Delta” (Postmodern Culture, Vol. 33, Issue 1); and “(Re)thinking Design with New Materialism―Towards a Critical Anthropology of Design” (Somatechnics, Vol. 10, Issue 3).

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