About
Critical Encounters is a design research practice led by Mahwish Khalil dedicated to exploring and challenging cultural, social, and political dimensions of climate change. Rooted in interdisciplinary inquiry, the practice investigates how histories of colonialism, displacement, infrastructural failure, and environmental transformation shape the lived experiences and imaginaries of communities facing climate crisis.
Through collaborative, narrative-driven research and design interventions, Critical Encounters seeks to surface marginalized voices, disrupt dominant development paradigms, and propose pluralistic, context-sensitive approaches to climate and urban futures. By engaging with time, memory, and spatial justice, the practice aims to foster new imaginaries of coexistence in a rapidly shifting landscape.
Mahwish Khalil is a Pakistani architectural designer and interdisciplinary researcher currently based in Upstate New York. She teaches at Syracuse University and is leading a design research practice called Critical Encounters. Through storytelling, architecture, and spatial analysis, she proposes alternate imaginaries for the built environment challenging fixed notions of edges, boundaries, and movement.
She has received several grants, including the AKPIA Travel Grant (2023) and the CAMIT Seed Grant (2024). Her work has been featured across several exhibitions and platforms, such as Iraq: Beyond the Two Rivers, Amidst Four Works, Entwined: Land & Us, the Journal of Architectural Education, and the 19th International Venice Architecture Biennale. Her writing has been published in Urban Assemblage: The City as Architecture, POOL AUD, and Silt Magazine.
Mahwish received a Master of Science in Architecture Studies (SMArchS) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Architecture (BArch) with Distinction from Beaconhouse National University.