SMArchS, MIT; BArch from BNU
Mahwish Khalil is a Pakistani artist, architectural designer, and interdisciplinary researcher whose work delves into the narratives of the built environment. Her research focuses on alternative modes of storytelling that challenge and deconstruct colonial and post-colonial narratives in urban planning and design. She employs various mediums such as film and drawing to document oral histories and create storytelling platforms for marginalized communities. By investigating the linearity of architectural representation, she interrogates elements such as “edges” and “thresholds” to draw out binaries ingrained within urban landscapes.
Mahwish has received grants, including the AKPIA Travel Grant (2023) and the CAMIT Seed Grant at MIT (2024). Her short film, Ravi: Tales from a River, has been screened internationally, and her work has been featured in several exhibitions, including Iraq: Beyond the Two Rivers, Amidst Four Works, and The Changing Room. Her writing has been published in Urban Assemblage: The City as Architecture, Media, AI and Big Data (AMPs Routledge Proceeding Series 25) and POOL Issue 9. She holds a SMArchS degree from MIT and a BArch from BNU where she was awarded the Thesis Distinction Award.”
