This article focuses on bottom-up spatial transformations of housing estates in post-socialist and developing countries. Based on the findings collected in over thirty housing estates, it is evident that ordinary citizens in economically and institutionally weaker countries recognize the same shortcomings of housing estates and adress them through interventions with spatial characteristics similar to those known from western countries. The article describes a typology of fourteen of these interventions and explains the benefits they bring to the city. The aim of the article is to propose greater involvement of residents to the physical transformation of housing estates arguing that such nvolvement may result in more efficient processes with the benefit of creating tighter social bonds and a sense of community. It however also mentions the limits bottom-up transformation processes may have and planners and architects should be aware of.