Professional profile
Heritage conservation | Multicriteria Evaluation | Circular Economy | Cultural tourism | Impacts assessment | Circular City Planning
Architect, she specialises in evaluation methods for the conservation, regeneration and adaptive reuse of cultural and landscape heritage, with a specific focus on integrating circular economy principles into urban and territorial policies, public decision-making processes, and sustainable local development models.
She obtained a PhD in Evaluation Methods for the Integrated Conservation, Recovery, Management and Maintenance of Architectural, Urban and Environmental Heritage from the University of Naples Federico II in 2015. Her scientific activity is positioned at the intersection of heritage conservation, multicriteria evaluation, urban planning, and the assessment of impacts related to conservation and territorial transformations. She served as co-coordinator of the European research and innovation project Horizon 2020 CLIC (www.clicproject.eu).
Her main research areas include multicriteria and multidimensional evaluation of plans, programmes and projects for cultural heritage conservation and urban and territorial regeneration; the development and application of indicators for impact assessment, particularly in the adaptive reuse of cultural heritage; the design of innovative governance, financing and business models for heritage valorisation within the circular economy perspective; circular city planning and the role of built and landscape heritage in ecological transition processes.
A core strand of her research focuses on sustainable and circular cultural tourism, conceived as a lever for place-based development and social and economic innovation, capable of overcoming extractive and short-term models. In this field, she has coordinated large-scale European projects, including Horizon 2020 Be.CULTOUR – Beyond Cultural Tourism (www.becultour.eu), aimed at developing innovation ecosystems for a human-centred and circular tourism model, and the COSME/SMP TRACE project – SMEs TRAnsition for a European Circular Tourism Ecosystem, focused on strengthening the capacities of tourism SMEs in the green and circular transition.
She is also Principal Investigator of national research projects funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR), including the PRIN PNRR C@RE – Italian historic villages regeneration through circular ecological heritage communities, which addresses the regeneration of historic villages through heritage-based and ecological community models. In addition, she serves as scientific lead for CNR in PRIN projects (TReE) and Horizon Europe projects (BRIDGESMEs www.bridgesmes.eu) dedicated to the ecological transition of cities and to the application of emerging technologies and Industry 5.0 in the fields of heritage conservation, creative and cultural industries, and tourism. She has also collaborated in large-scale European projects and initiatives, including EIT KIC Culture & Creativity, ARCHE, and other EU-funded programmes addressing cultural heritage, innovation and sustainable development.
Her work combines theoretical and applied research, support to public decision-making processes, field experimentation and capacity building, with a strong emphasis on the transferability of research outcomes to policies, public administrations, enterprises and local communities. She is the author of scientific volumes and numerous publications in international journals and edited books, and she regularly collaborates with European research networks and institutions on cultural heritage, circular economy and sustainable urban development.
CNR Disciplinary Fields and Research Management Sectors
- SH8_6 Architecture, design, craft, heritage, knowledge, conservation, creative industries
- SH7_7 Cities, urban, regional and rural studies
- SH8_3 Cultural studies and theory, cultural identities and memories, cultural heritage, architecture
MUR Italian Scientific-Disciplinary Sector
- 08/A3 Transport Infrastructure and Systems, Estimation and Evaluation
Groups & Labs CNR ISPC
Cities and Cultural Heritage Research Group →
Publications
Highlight
L. Fusco Girard, A. Gravagnuolo (editors) (2025). Adaptive Reuse of Cultural Heritage: Circular Business, Financial and Governance Models. EN: Springer Cham. ISBN 978-3-031-67627-7 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-67628-4
A. Gravagnuolo, M. Angrisano, M. Bosone, F. Buglione, P. De Toro, L. Fusco Girard (2024). “Participatory evaluation of cultural heritage adaptive reuse interventions in the circular economy perspective: A case study of historic buildings in Salerno (Italy)”. Journal of Urban Management, Elsevier. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jum.2023.12.002
A. Gravagnuolo, L. Fusco Girard, K. Kourtit, P. Nijkamp (2021). “Adaptive re-use of urban cultural resources: Contours of circular city planning”. City, Culture and Society, Elsevier. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccs.2021.100416
