Global displacement has been rapidly increasing over the last decades and is expected to rise even further in the upcoming years due to the negative impacts of climate change and more frequent and severe weather events. This highlights the growing demand for sustainable housing for the displaced. Transitional housing is a structurally sound interim shelter for a maximum duration of about three years, which by essence is designed to be relocated. Though such units have a potential to be partially or fully reused, in reality, high investments, inflexible designs, and negative environmental impacts deem them an undesirable option.

The research aims to integrate circular building principles into the design process of transitional housing units (THUs) to help bring economical value back to the donors, strengthen the community resilience and retain material value. By examining existing transitional housing options and their lifecycle, stakeholder involvement, and circularity principles in the built environment, the thesis develops a suggestive tool for circularity informed design decisions, while introducing a circular transitional housing design proposal for the extreme conditions of upper Sindh province, Pakistan.

The literature review highlights the lack of information on the end-of-life phase of transitional housing units. The most common scenarios, as well as circular alternatives, are mapped out. Circular building principles across the topics of materials, design, manufacturing, and management, are investigated for their ability to be integrated in humanitarian construction. This provides the scientific basis for the development of a recommendation set and a visual evaluation tool for THU planners. The efficacy of the suggestive tool is shown through the design proposal.

The extreme conditions of repeated flooding and high temperatures in upper Sindh necessitate resilient design strategies. Vernacular inspired passive techniques and the use of locally available biobased materials, such as bamboo and hemp, are proposed to mitigate temperature impacts and enhance sustainability. Design principles such as design for disassembly, and adaptability, are implemented as a means to increase the circularity potential of the developed THU. The design proposal portrays the unit as a stock of valuable components, which can be reintroduced in the local economy at the end of the displacement period – a material bank.

Incorporating circularity in transitional housing projects has the potential to foster innovation in the humanitarian sector, which in turn could also be applied to tackling challenges faced by conventional architecture. The findings contribute to the development of circularity practices in the humanitarian sector, thus contributing to the well-known principle of do-no-harm.