María Pilar Giraldo Forero

Spécialiste de KTT

PROGRAMME / Bioéconomie, santé et gouvernance

Ph.D. Architect from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) with a "Cum Laude" distinction and awarded the Extraordinary Doctorate Prize by UPC in 2015. Senior researcher at the Catalan Institute of Wood (INCAFUST), part of the Centre for Forest Science and Technology of Catalonia (CTFC), responsible for activities related to the use and transformation of wood and timber products in construction. She is a member of the BIOFOR research group and the Mediterranean Lab Wood, both part of the CTFC, and collaborates with the GICITED group at EPSEB-UPC.
She is also a part-time professor at the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). She regularly delivers guest lectures in specialized courses on wood construction and fire safety. Her expertise focuses on fire performance and fire spread in facades, fire safety, and fire propagation modeling, with extensive experience in research projects related to timber building elements and sustainable construction. She is particularly interested in the use of wood products and bio-based materials in architecture, with a strong focus on the fire reaction and hygrothermal behavior of façade components.
She participated as a member of the Management Committee and co-leader of a working group in the COST Action FP1404 - Fire Safe Use of Bio-Based Building Products. As a result of this, she actively collaborates with the global research group Fire Safe Use of Wood (FSUW). She is a co-founder and activities coordinator of LIGNOMAD, a Spanish research network promoting the use of wood and lignocellulosic materials in the construction sector. Additionally, she is actively involved in various initiatives aimed at promoting and advancing the use of locally sourced wood in Catalonia’s construction industry.

Haurie, Laia., Campesino, Sergio., Avellaneda, Alina., Giraldo, M. Pilar., Lacasta, Ana. (2024). Efecto de la presencia de horgura en el comportamiento al fuego de uniones metálicas ocultas para estructuras de madera. Congreso Iberoamericano CIMAD, 2070 – 273.

Haurie, Laia., De la Barrera, Adriana., Segués, Edgar., Giraldo, M. Pilar., Rubio, Victor. Fire Performance of Epoxy Mortar Repair System. (2024). Wood and Fire Safety 2024.

Giraldo, M. P., Avellaneda, A., Haurie, L., Vilches, M., & Lacasta, A. M. (2023). Experimental study of the effects of accelerated aging cycles on the fire reaction performance of five wood species. In Proceedings of the 13th World Conference on Timber Engineering (WCTE 2023) (Vol. 1, pp. 564–570).

Guía de Fuego ASEFAVE (2023). Alex Siuró, Zigor Marroquín, Ferran Muñoz, Miguel Ángel Muñoz, Nuria Costa, Miguel Ángel Núñez, Elena Malaina, María Pilar Giraldo.

Haurie, L., Giraldo, M. P., Lacasta, A. M., Montón, J., & Sonnier, R. (2019). Influence of different parameters in the fire behaviour of seven hardwood species. Fire safety journal, 107, 193-201.

Palumbo, Mariana., Lacasta, A. María., Giraldo, M. Pilar., Haurie, Laia., Correal, Eduard. Bio-based insulation materials and their hygrothermal performance in a building envelope system (ETICS). (2018). Energy and Building, vol. 174, 147 – 155.


Leiva, Camila., Diaz Grande, Jaume., Giraldo, M. Pilar., Cascante, D., Soto, P.G. (2018) Safety evaluation in face of fire of three solutions in timber fronts in Buildings. : World Conference on Timber Engineering.

Palumbo, M., Lacasta, A. M., Navarro, A., Giraldo, M. P., & Lesar, B. (2017). Improvement of fire reaction and mould growth resistance of a new bio-based thermal insulation material. Construction and Building Materials, 139, 531-539.

Pastor, E., Corberó, B., Rios, O., Giraldo, M. P., Haurie, L., Lacasta, A., Cuerva, E., & Planas, E. (2016). Compartment and façade large scale tests: Behavior comparison of different insulating materials in case of fire. Applications of Structural Fire Engineering.

Giraldo, M. P., Haurie, L., Sotomayor, J., Lacasta, A. M., & Montón, J. (2016). Characterization of the fire behaviour of tropical wood species for use in the construction industry. In Proceedings of the WCTE 2016: World Conference on Timber Engineering (pp. 5387-5395). Austria, August 22-25.

Palumbo, M., Giraldo, M. P., Navarro, A., & Lacasta, A. (2015). Performance of biobased insulation board from crop by-products and natural gums. In Proceedings of the International Conference of Bio-based Materials. June 10.

Lacasta Palacio, A. M., Haurie Ibarra, L., Palumbo Fernández, M., & Giraldo, M. P. (2015). Factors affecting smouldering combustion of bio-based thermal insulation materials. In Proceedings of the European Workshop on Fire Safety of Green Buildings (pp. 40-42). Berlin, Germany, 6-7 October.