Francesco Calabrò

Francesco Calabrò is an Associate Professor at the Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria (Italy), affiliated with the Heritage, Architecture and Urban Planning Department. He specializes in cultural heritage management, urban planning, and economic evaluation of projects. He teaches Real Estate Appraisal and Economic Evaluation of Plans and Projects in Architecture and Civil Engineering programs. As a leading academic, he heads two Master's programs: 'Cultural Tourism and Landscape' and 'Evaluation and Strategic Planning of City and Territory'. He also directs the UNESCO Heritage of the Mediterranean research laboratory (UNESCO Med Lab) and co-directs the LaborEst Lab and its associated journal.

His research focuses on integrating economic feasibility analysis with cultural heritage preservation, territorial development strategies, and sustainable tourism. Calabrò has coordinated major projects like the 'e-CulT' PRIN initiative on Byzantine-Norman heritage conservation and the 'PLanETs' study on industrial heritage. He actively participates in international conferences, notably the biennial 'New Metropolitan Perspectives' symposium since 2014.

He serves on the PhD committee for the Architecture program and chairs ICOMOS Italia's Cultural Tourism committee. Despite no listed awards, his extensive project portfolio demonstrates leadership in heritage-driven economic strategies. His advisory work includes roles in regional development contracts for Calabrian municipalities like Nicotera and Taverna, focusing on cultural landscape revitalization.

Key labs/teams: UNESCO Med Lab (http://www.unescomedlab.unirc.it/), LaborEst Lab (http://www.laborest.unirc.it/), and the editorial board of the open-access journal 'LaborEst'.