Can plentiful locally available materials, such as sand and soil, be combined with binders to provide low-cost building materials? Can suitable bio-based or waste-based binders be developed? Can designs and construction techniques, such as interlocking CEBs, in-situ casting and SBTs, enable self-build and households to use ‘sweat-equity’ to reduce costs? How can circular approaches be applied to provide services such as electricity, water, sanitation and solid waste management to housing in an affordable way? What new business models are needed to make this work? What is required from households, community organisations, builders, entrepreneurs, training institutes, banks, local authorities and government to enable new circular models of affordable housing to happen? These were some of the questions we tackled in a Circular Economy Workshop for the construction and building sector in Namibia. Thank you, Karin Merle, Bärbel Kirchner, Mihaela Balan, and the Construction Industries Federation of Namibia (CIF Namibia) for organising this. The workshop was funded by EU Africa RISE (Reform for Investment and Sustainable Economies). We look forward to developing some of the ideas from the workshop and seeing where they go!