Design holds incredible power to influence change in cities, address climate crises, break the prevailing order of exclusion, and renew nature-people relationship. In the re-envisioning of our cities, urban design must dismantle many walls in which it now exists, including the formal master planning process that perpetuates hierarchy and control. The ways forward are to understand and honour equity-based development, nature-people relationship, adopt ecology-centered design, and ensure collective intervention or people’s collaboration in nature-based development.