Carmelo Zappulla, Founder, CEO & Head of Design of External Reference, is an Italian PhD architect who graduated with honours. Under his leadership, External Reference has been recognised with the Architecture Master Prize, the World Architecture Festival Award, and the SBID International Design Award.
His work is built on a continuous dialogue between artisanship and novel design and digital fabrication technologies, an approach the studio has carried through its projects. He explores architecture as a territory for innovation through experimentation, where human-centred design and aesthetic values are key to designing the extraordinary.
"We integrate luxury and sustainability, digital and physical, art and technology shaping spaces that reflect both our design philosophy and the client's individuality."
Carmelo pairs professional practice with teaching and research, directing the Master's in Experiential Design at LCI Barcelona and teaching at IAAC for over a decade, and his research has been published internationally.
External Reference is a multidisciplinary studio led by architect Dr. Carmelo Zappulla, dedicated to transforming spaces into emotional experiences through architecture and design. Founded in 2007, the firm has carried out international projects across a wide range of fields, including urban interventions, architecture, retail, hospitality, exhibition design, and product design. The studio, based in Barcelona and Dubai, approaches every project with a focus on innovation and technological research, drawing on a broad range of external influences, from contemporary art and culture to science and philosophy. Our team brings together more than 20 nationalities and a diversity of disciplinary backgrounds, contributing to shaping how we read context and translate it into design, as well as offering holistic and innovative design services. Our work has received international recognition, with awards spanning architecture, product design, and sustainability, and has been featured in leading publications and exhibitions worldwide, cementing its position as a reference point in the field.
External Reference operates from two studios that reflect its dual identity, in Barcelona and Dubai. The Barcelona headquarters occupies two floors of 275 m² each, where architects and designers work side by side across concept, prototyping, and production. In Dubai, the studio is based at Bayswater Tower, Business Bay, at the heart of the emirate's business and design district, facing the Burj Khalifa skyline and the Dubai Canal. Together, the two studios connect Mediterranean craft with Gulf ambition, grounding every project in two distinct design cultures.
The team spans architects, computational designers, and product designers who move across scales without handing off between phases, the same hands often carry a project from concept sketch to fabrication file. Carmelo Zappulla sets the studio's design language and material research. It's this continuity, rather than the division of labour, that lets External Reference treat prototyping and production as design tools rather than downstream steps.
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Internships apply at careers@externalreference.com