Dr Hamid Khalili is a Senior Lecturer in Architecture  (Inscriptive Practices & Future Processes) at the Manchester School of Architecture (MSA). Hamid’s teaching and research lie in the common ground between the theory and practice of architecture and digital narrative practices such as cinema, animation, video games, VR and immersive environments. Hamid has practised both design and filmmaking and has taught, developed and coordinated courses across three continents in both architecture and film schools. Prior to his current role MSA, he taught and researched at the University of Edinburgh, the University of Liverpool and the University of Melbourne. He has given guest lectures, directed workshops, and has been a visiting critic at several architecture and film schools in Europe, Asia and Australia.

Other Positions

  • 2024-2027 Visiting Associate Professor, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland, Switzerland.

Employment History

  • 2022-2023 Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, University of Edinburgh, UK.
  • 2020-2022 Liverpool School of Architecture, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.
  • 2016-2020 Melbourne School of Design, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.

Languages

English, Italian and Farsi.

Postgraduate supervision

Current PhD Students:

  • Rui Ma, ‘Cinematic-Architectural Comedy: Buster Keaton as an Architect’ (Role: Co-Supervisor).
  • Gang Pan, ‘Architecture of Interactive Moving Images: Videogame Spatial Cinematics’ (Role: Principal Supervisor).
  • Ziqiu Ren, ‘Filming Everyday Temporal-Spatial Patterns: Food Markets Nodes in China’ (Role: Co-Supervisor).
  • Anil Yavuz, ‘Past & Future: Videogame Technologies and Culture Heritage’ (Role: Co-Supervisor).
  • Yucheng Jia, ‘Crafting Cinematic Virtual Reality with Subtle Expressive Montages for Enhanced Immersion’ (Role: Principal Supervisor).

I am interested in supervising practice-based and theoretical PhD and MPhil theses in the fields of:

  • Cinema, architecture and cities
  • Architectural image-making and representation
  • Architecture and/of video game
  • Narrative XR, VR, AR practices
  • Architecture and content-sharing social platforms (YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, etc)
  • Design thinking & design Pedagogy
  • Architecture and/of sport (football and horseracing in particular)
  • Digital tangiable & intangible heritage 

My other research interests include, but are not limited to material and visual culture, history of domesticity and interiors, architecture and literature, film theory, and Serbian and Balkan architecture.

Press and media appearances and contributions

Research

Research Interests

Hamid’s research examines the nexus between architecture and time-based narrative media. He is interested in the ways in which:

  • Theory, pedagogy, and practice of digital narrative practices (film, VR, AR, video game and immersive environments).
  • Practice-based and creative design methods with a focus on storytelling and (digital) media.
  • Archaeology and theory of architectural media and representation.
  • Design pedagogy and thinking.

In 2022, he convened ‘Spatio-temporal Tales: Design Pedagogies of Digital Narrative Practices’; a symposium concentrated on the ‘pedagogy’ of film, animation, video game, VR and AR as means of spatial storytelling: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/architecture/news/stories/title,1322651,en.html

As a cinephile, he is interested in the spatio-temporal features of the cinema of directors such as Béla Tarr, Michelangelo Antonioni, Theo Angelopoulos, Carlos Reygadas, Pedro Costa, Tsai Ming-Liang, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Bi Gan and Hu Bo. Hamid is also fascinated by spatial storytelling in video games and how the notion of ‘videogame cinematics’ has changed the essence of gaming in recent years.

Hamid is a member of the research centres of ‘[CPU]lab: Smart and Sustainable Future Cities’, ‘Manchester Game Centre’ and ‘Heritage and Humanities’ and works with the Centre for Architecture and Visual Arts (CAVA) as a research collaborator. He has worked on several funded projects, design competitions and consultancy grants.

Invited Discussions

Lectures (in person):

  • 2024. Invited Public Lecture, ‘Architecture of Videogames’, University of Cambridge, Department of Architecture, Cambridge, UK.
  • 2023. Invited Lecture, ‘Creative Heritage? Immersive, Interactive and Cinematic Media.’, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK.     
  • 2022. Invited Lecture, ‘Cine-architecture Matrix: an Architectural Film Design Tool’, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK.     
  • 2022. Invited Lecture, ‘Digital Narrative Practices and the Discipline of Architecture: from Video-essays to Immersive Storytelling’, Kent University, Canterbury, UK.     
  • 2022. Invited Lecture, ‘Narrative Sections: Architectural Drawing as a Narrative Device’, Queens Belfast University, Belfast, UK.     
  • 2021. Invited Lecture, ‘Narrative Sections: Architectural Drawing as a Narrative Device’, the Grenfell Baines Institute of Architecture (GBIA), Preston, UK.
  • 2020. Invited Online Lecture, ‘Long Takes, Continuity and the Experience of Urban Spaces’, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK.           
  • 2019. Invited Lecture, ‘Film, Architecture, Design Approaches and Methods’, Introductory Seminar Series, MSD, Melbourne, Australia 
  • 2017. Invited Lecture, ‘Architecture and the Cinema of Bela Tarr’, Budapest Film School, Budapest, Hungary. 

Online Lectures:

  • 2023. Invited Online Lecture, ‘Temporal Thinking VS Spatial Thinking’, German International University (GUC), Cairo, Egypt.
  • 2022. Online Introductory Symposium Lecture, ‘Spatio-temporal Tales: Design Pedagogies of Digital Narrative Practices’, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.
  • 2021. Invited Online Lecture, ‘Bela Tarr: Contemplative Cinema, Spatial Thinking, and Architecture’, Budapest Film Institute, Budapest, Hungary    
  • 2021. Invited Online Lecture, ‘Architectural Animations, Carving Space and Time’, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China
  • 2020. Invited Online Lecture, ‘The Architecture and the Cinema of Bela Tarr’, Sarajevo Film Academy, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.         

Seminars:

  • 2024. Guest Seminar, ‘Immersive Environmental Storytelling in Contemporary Videogames’, Factory International, Manchester, UK.
  • 2023. Guest Seminar, ‘Spatial Cinematics in Videogames’, Trent University, Nottingham, UK.     

Books

Khalili, H., 2025. 'Cinematics of Spaces: A Taxonomic Approach [in preparation]', Bloomsbury.

Book Chapters

Gamini, H., Khalili, H., 2018. 'Resettlement Challenges for Children After Disasters (Case Study): Bam City'. In Resettlement Challenges for Displaced Populations and Refugees, Springer.

Journal Articles

Khalili, H., M., H., 2024. 'An Urban Hyperreality: The Impact of Urban Digital Twin on Citizens' Perception of the City', Tourism of Culture.

Khalili, H., 2024. 'The Architectonics of Time, Movement and Hapticity: Béla Tarr', Architectural Theory Review.

Khalili, H.A., Ma, R., 2024. 'The architecture of the video game Stray (2022): the feline quadruped cyberpunk player', Edinburgh Architecture Research (EAR), 38 (2), pp. 6-31.

Gang, P., Khalili, H., 2024. 'Videogame Spatial Cinematics: An Analytical System', Design Studies.

Khalili, H., 2023. 'A Design Studio Experiment: Pedagogy, Digital Storytelling, and Atmosphere in Architectural Education', The International Journal of Design Education, 17 (1), pp. 213-232.

Khalili, H., Brennan, A., 2023. 'In praise of orthographic projections: cinematic plans, history and application', Journal of Design, Business and Society, 9 (1), pp. 9-39.

Khalili, H., Brennan, A., 2022. 'A failure in resilience: The corrupting influence of postwar Milan in Visconti's Rocco and His Brothers', Journal of Design for Resilience in Architecture and Planning, 3 ((Special Issue)), pp. 97-112.

Amouzad Khalili, H., Khodamizabihi, R., 2017. 'The Role of Banal Objects in Developing the Artistic Expression of an Idea', The International Journal of Arts Theory and History, 12 (4), pp. 12-19.

Conference Papers

Khalili, H., 2021. 'The Spatiality of Time in Slow Cinema', Online Symposium of Interdisciplinary Studies in Art Philosophy, Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan..

Khalili, H., 2021. 'Utopian Cinematics of Dystopian Spaces of Slow Cinema', Online International Conference of Utopia in Art and Politics, MOMus-Museum of Modern Art-Kostaki Collection, Thessaloniki, Greece.

Khalili, H., Brennan, A., 2018. 'Postwar City as a storyteller in Visconti's Rocco and his brothers' at Cinema, Architecture and New Directions', Cinema, Architecture and New Directions, Newcastle, Australia..

Khalili, H., Gamini, H., 2017. 'How to Design and Implement Spaces for Children after Disasters: Case Study Bam City', I-Rec Conference on Disaster Recovery and Reconstruction for Refugees and Displaced Population, Toronto, Canada.

Khalili, H., 2015. 'A Comparative Spatial Representation Analysis: The Turin Horse and A Separation, Space, Time and Image', Film, Architecture and Domesticity, Ferrara, Italy.

Theses and Dissertations

Khalili, H., 2020. 'The Architecture of Film: Tarr, Angelopoulos and How to Ride a Wild Horse'.