During 04th-16th May, 2014, CAN-Cambodia host a collaborative workshop with Development Planning Unit, from The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, London. Building on and existing and by now long-term partnership between the DPU and the Asian Coalition of Housing Rights (ACHR), along with the Community Architects Network (CAN, a program funded by ACHR), the Community Development Foundation(CDF), and networking with other relevant actor that influence Cambodia’s urban development, this DPU 2014 workshop entitled "CAMBODIA: Transformation in a Time of Transition" aimed to build an overall understanding of the process of city-wide upgrading of urban poor settlements in the context of South-East Asia and to grasp its complexities and contradictions. Specific design strategies and interventions will be analyzed within existing governance structures and processes, and their potential for generating transformative change will be put under scrutiny while suggesting further possibilities of urban interventions. In so doing we want to give voice to a critical reflection on the role of design and spatial agencies in general, and question the role of the practitioner in the whole process. The students from DPU and UCL worked together with CDF intensively in 6 different sites over Cambodia, which were Russiey Keo, Bora Keira and Andong in Phnom Penh, and other 3 informal settlements in Battambang and Serei Sophon. The results of this participatory workshop will be further utilised to support the continuing development projects of CDF in Cambodia.