Abstract
Placemaking in dense cities is a highly territorial process characterised by transient spatial practices. This study builds off such a case of territorial placemaking in the city-state of Singapore, drawing from the varied ways residents in public housing have appropriated their corridor spaces for personal use. Using a novel mixed-methods approach of environmental assessments and surveys, I argue that a transient mobilisation of territoriality can be used to explain the overlaps of spatial intentions inherent to places in dense cities, highlighting the material choices of residents as well as the use of spatial tactics to allow transitions between fixity and mobility. In doing so, the intersections of architecture and spatial habits are brought to the fore, drawing out several implications for the ontological practice of design in dense cities.