Architecture has long struggled with the contradiction of being both a profoundly social art and a profession structured by exclusivity. The tools, language, and systems of design have historically been confined to experts—architects, planners, engineers—rendering most people spectators in shaping the spaces they inhabit. Against this backdrop, the practices of self-build and repair emerge as deeply political acts: they offer people the means to re-engage with the making of their environments, to reclaim agency over their living conditions, and to reframe architecture as a participatory and empowering process.