Contemporary problems of urban space and city life revolve around congestion, pollution, waste, insecurity, lack of ownership, as well as lack of social and cultural dynamics, among others. Besides the above, the deterioration of urban space, relates to the fact that the way in which they are designed caters to technical, aesthetic and economic requirements, disregarding, in most cases, the real needs of citizens. Thus, from the theoretical, academic and so-called urban collective stand points, new ways of management and urban design are being explored, in order to incorporate features such as true and full inclusion of citizens, new technologies as tools for participation and innovation, use of small-scale urban spaces that become potential scenarios of urban renewal, self-management as a strategy for the development of urban spaces that meet the immediate needs of citizens and participatory urban actions as an alternative for healing partial wounds that traditional interventions are leaving in the the city. The objective of this work is a theoretical reflection on the aforementioned problems, which are a reality in most cities in Colombia; after that, to ask about these new alternatives for design and construction of urban spaces; and finally, through the case study project, to display a clear example of spatial transformation through participatory urban design, the use of the residual public spaces and self-management of small-scale (neighbourhood scale) which will contribute in the construction of a permeable, accessible and sustainable urban fabric within the urban grid of our cities.Los problemas del espacio y la vida urbana en la actualidad giran alrededor de la congestión, la contaminación, lo residual y lo deteriorado; de la inseguridad, la falta de apropiación, la ausencia de dinámicas sociales y culturales, entre otros. Además de lo anterior, la razón del desuso del espacio urbano, es la concepción de lugares proyectados desde lo técnico, estético y económico, sin considerar en la mayoría de los casos las verdaderas necesidades de los ciudadanos. Es por esto, que desde lo teórico, la academia y los denominados colectivos urbanos, se han venido explorando nuevas alternativas de gestión y diseño urbano que poseen características tales como: inclusión verídica y total del ciudadano, nuevas tecnologías como herramientas de participación e innovación, aprovechamiento de vacíos urbanos a pequeña escala que se convierten en escenarios potenciales de renovación urbana, la autogestión como estrategia para la elaboración de espacios urbanos que satisfacen las necesidades inmediatas del ciudadano y acciones urbanas participativas como una alternativa para empezar a sanar las heridas parciales que se van dejando en la ciudad.