Change By Design was a rapid participatory planning workshop run by Architecture sans Frontiers in Nairobi, a city with considerable housing challenges with a significant proportion of the population living in slums. Working in close collaboration with local NGO Pamoja Trust, United Nations and Nairobi University, the 2 week intensive project sought to enable the residents of Mathare slum community to generate their own visions and strategies for slum upgrading, exploring funding routes, land rights, housing design and community infrastructure. The team sought to explore answers to questions such as:  ‘How can slum dwellers be meaningfully involved in slum upgrading as active agents of change, rather than beneficiaries of top-down ‘improvement’ projects?’