In our July issue (out now), we take you to the tiny fishing village of Nima, in the Shimane prefecture in southern Japan where we pay homage to the Nima Sand Museum, first unveiled in 1991. A phenomenal structure by locally born architect Shin Takamatsu, it was built as a modern monument to the unusual ’singing’ sand of nearby Kotogahama beach, which, when walked on, makes a strange, rasping sound.

To see sweeping shots of the building, and read our interview with Takamatsu, now 62, you will have to turn to the magazine.

Here on wallpaper.com however, we give you an insight into the ’singing’ sand itself.