Current urban intervention processes at various scales focus on the indispensable need to include citizen participation in specific projects. However, participation at the various project stages often takes place as a checklist in order to produce a specific result, where process control remains in the hands of those intervening, with very little effective and long term involvement from those the intervention was directed to. From an understanding of contemporary ways of dwelling, this paper reviews the existing problems with participatory urban processes in Chile; it specifically looks at participation within the Ministry of Housing and Urbanism 'Quiero Mi Barrio' ('I love my neighbourhood') Programme, and proposes a co-creation approach in order to improve ways of living in urban areas today.