Eytan Mann (PhD) is an architect and interactive designer working at the intersection of computational design and historiography. He is currently a post-doctoral fellow at MTRL (Material Topology Research Lab) at the Technion Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning. His research examines modes of transmedia storytelling, mixing archival material with environmental sensing to explore new modes of data-driven virtual heritage. Eytan holds a Ph.D. from the Technion Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, a Master of Science in Architecture Studies (SMArchS) from the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, and a B.Arch from the Azrieli Architecture School at Tel-Aviv University.

 

Eytan explores computational design’s role in heritage preservation as a potential mediating history and historiography of conflicted sites in Israel-Palestine and worldwide. Through extended reality interfaces he explores paths of historical argumentation relating to sites and archives with conflicting histories. Through design research he delves into preservation’s epistemology, challenging rooted dichotomies of past and present, archive, and site. Using Artificial intelligence along with immersive visualizations, he develops new bridges between archival records and sites, blending tangible remnants with intangible narratives, as a mode of  “critical reconstruction”. This interactive landscape/archive fuses historical media, bridging past and present. It underlines technological power in studying heritage sites critically.

 

Eytan teaches seminars and workshops related to the critical reconstruction of sites and archives, challenging students to assume historical argumentation through the design of responsive VR environments. He taught at various institutions including MIT, TU Berlin, McGill, Technion, and Bezalel.