From 31^st August to 4^th September, FRISSBE welcomed Dr Martyn McLaggan, Lecturer in Low Carbon Design at the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, University of Sheffield, for a week-long research visit. The visit, organised by Dr Andrea Lucherini, offered an opportunity for in-depth scientific exchange on one of the most pressing challenges in contemporary construction: how to reconcile the drive towards decarbonisation and circularity with the requirements of fire safety in the built environment.

Dr McLaggan holds an MEng in Architectural Engineering from the University of Strathclyde and a PhD in Fire Safety Engineering from the University of Edinburgh. His doctoral research investigated how to balance the potential energy savings of modern low-carbon building materials with their inherent fire risk, a question that has become increasingly urgent as the construction sector accelerates its transition towards sustainable materials and methods. He subsequently worked as a research consultant and postdoctoral fellow in a joint position between Denmark and Sweden, focused on façades and the translation of research into industry practice. Following the Grenfell Tower fire, Dr McLaggan directed a team of researchers at the University of Queensland to develop the Cladding Materials Library, an open-access database containing quantitative fire performance data for cladding materials. He joined the University of Sheffield in 2021, where his work combines sustainability, fire safety, structural engineering, and architecture to enable the safe use of novel and renewable low-carbon building materials, including timber, advanced composites, and phase change materials.

During the visit, Dr McLaggan delivered two presentations to different audiences. On Tuesday 1st September, he presented at ZAG's headquarters in Ljubljana to a broad audience of ZAG staff, under the title "Circularity and Decarbonisation vs. Fire Safety". The session covered his research background and the work of the sustainability research group at the University of Sheffield, approaches to decarbonisation and circularity in the built environment, and both established and emerging methods in fire safety engineering. The presentation was followed by a lively discussion on how the construction sector can progress towards sustainability goals without compromising fire safety performance.

On Wednesday 2^nd September, Dr McLaggan delivered a more specialist session at the FRISSBE Fire Laboratory in Logatec, tailored to the fire research community, entitled "The Urgent Need for Fire Engineering to Adapt". Using façades as a central example throughout, the talk traced how the built environment has changed in recent decades, explored the origins of existing fire test methods and their limitations in addressing modern construction, examined the problem of vertical fire spread in contemporary facade systems, and presented the Cladding Materials Library as a practical example of a rational, data-driven approach to fire safety engineering in an era of rapidly changing materials and building designs.

Beyond the two formal presentations, Dr McLaggan held tutorials and one-to-one exchanges with individual members of the FRISSBE unit throughout the week, discussing ongoing research, sharing methodologies, and exploring opportunities for future collaboration between the University of Sheffield and ZAG-FRISSBE.

ZAG-FRISSBE thanks Dr McLaggan for his generosity in sharing his expertise and for the quality of the exchanges throughout the week. We look forward to continuing this conversation and to future joint activities.