A Dubai-based architect duo is looking to break from conventional building practices with an alternative cement conceived in the salt flats of the UAE and made using a problematic waste material.

Wael Al Awar and Kenichi Teramoto, principal architects at waiwai, enlisted the scientific knowhow of universities in the UAE and Japan to create a cement made using brine generated by the UAE’s desalination plants, which remove salt from seawater.

They were inspired by the UAE’s mineral-rich sabkha — salt flats that are part of the country’s wetlands. “It a huge area … that’s often overlooked,” Al Awar told CNN.

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