Carmelo Zappulla holds a doctorate (European Mention) with honors from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Barcelona. Zappulla is founder and managing director of the Barcelona-based international firm External Reference, which focuses on architectural and interior design, urban planning, architectural redevelopment, and exhibition space design.External Reference, thanks to architect Zappulla's dedication, has also built an extensive network of collaboration with international professionals over the years, which enables it to promote the integration of Italian craftsmanship and advanced digital technologies around the world.Architect Carmelo Zappulla also directed and won the competition for the exhibition design of the Spanish Pavilion for EXPO2020 in Dubai.Numerous international projects have been designed and built by the firm including the Spanish Pavilion exhibition for EXPO2012 in Yeosu, Korea, "24Kilates" Clockwork Building in Bangkok, the Sberbank Top manager offices in Moscow, or "Presented by" in Dubai, Doha, Riyadh, London, and Manchester and Mexico.Other important projects are: the Waterfront escalera Vela in Barcelona; the WOW Concept store, in Madrid.Carmelo Zappulla was awarded in 2011 by New Italian Blood as the best Italian architect under 36.Zappulla is currently the director of the Master's program in experiential design at LCI Barcelona, and a lecturer in experimental ecological design at IAAC Barcelona (Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalunya). He is also a member of Giras-Tec, an international research group between architecture and society at the Universidad Politecnica de Cataluña.His work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, during the 12th International Architecture Exhibition, the National Museum of XXI Century Arts-MAXXI in Rome, the EME3 International Festival of Architecture in Barcelona, and the prestigious EUROPAN 8 competition in Oslo. The project of "The Pure Plants," innovative and technological, entirely 3D printed in collaboration with LaMaquina and PURE.TECH, received the first prize for ROplastic by Rossana Orlandi, exhibited during Design Week in Dubai and Madrid and in 2023 in an exhibition entitled "The Garden of Tomorrow" during Design Week in Milan. His publications include scholarly articles published by Routledge and projects published in magazine such as "Frame", "Dezeen", "Domus", in well-known Italian and Spanish newspapers such as "Il Sole 24 ore" and "La Vanguardia".