Information
Mahwish Khalil is the founder of Critical Encounters, and an Assistant Professor at Syracuse University School of Architecture. Her work focuses on environmental change, with particular attention on water systems and their representation. Through design, writing, film, and exhibition-making, she examines how site-specific transformations are negotiated through architecture, politics of development and cultural production. 

Her work has been exhibited at Venice Architecture Biennale (2025) and CityGroup (2025). Her writing has been published in Room One Thousand, South Asian Urban Climates, Silt Magazine, Urban Assemblage, and POOL. Her short films, Ravi: Tales from a River (2023) and In the Fold of Shadows (2025) have been screened internationally.

Khalil holds a Master of Science in Architecture Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Architecture with Distinction from Beaconhouse National University.
       
Email, Instagram


Projects

Cloud Gardens (Last Resorts Collaboration)
Palancia Valley, Spain
2026 - Ongoing

Anchor Points
Competition Proposal
2025

Collective Hotspots
Andalusia, Spain
2024 - Ongoing

Tracing Water
Pucon and Atacama Region, Chile
2023-2024

Kinara-e-Ravi 
Lahore, Pakistan 
2023 - Ongoing


Writing 

Tidal Clocks
Room One Thousand Issue 14: Intertidal
2026

Staging Encounters: Chronicles of Displacement
South Asian Urban Climates
Forthcoming. 2026

Redrawing Constructed Landscapes
Silt Magazine Issue 02: Intertwined
2025

Spiraling Remnants
POOL Issue 09: Loop
2023

Exhibitions

In the Folds of Shadows
19th International Venice Architecture Biennale 2025
Arsenale
Venice, Italy

Short Films

Ravi: Tales from a River (2024)
Screened at the Middle East Now Festival, Milan, Italy
Screened at the IIUSFF Film Festival, Dhaka, Bangladesh


In the Fold of Shadows (2025)
Screened at the 19th International Venice Architecture Biennale


Press

El Confidencial (2026)
Árboles inyectados con trufa


Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3) (2026)
‘Last Resorts’, un caso de estudio facilitado por BC3, presentado en el Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza

Cornell AAP (2025)
Venice Biennale 

Archpaper (2025)
Venice Biennale 
All rights reserved by author and collaborators.Last Updated                                                            2026
critical encounters
is a research-based architectural practice that investigates environmental infrastructure, climate, and governance through spatial inquiry.
Top Critical Encounters. All rights reserved by author and collaborators. 2026.