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Theese constructions serve as: tomb (nawamis Synai, naveta 
Minorca), storing for the tools, herdmen’ s shelter, stalls for 
livestock, transhumance architecture (Extremadura), temple 
(Hal Saflieni Malta, Gallarus Oratory Ireland), treasury 
(Atreus treasury in Micene), control (mantarah Palestine, 
weinbergshaeuschen Germany, vrtujak Croatia), storing 
(tazota Morocco, paghliaia Apulia), drying (fiskbirgi Iceland), 
chilling (crot or scele CH, giazera I), icehouse (nevera 
Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Great Britain, 
Slovenia), information transfer (nuraghe Sardinia), palace 
(Deir el Bahri Egypt) and waterwell (Sardinia, with the miracle 
– Sant’Anastasia).
Construction is always the same – corbelling, but the several 
shapes occur, with different details.  The main typics is use of 
square root of three, divided by two. It is composed of three 
sticks: height of equilateral triangle is by Pythagoras v3/2. This 
can be used for restoration of collapsed monuments, constructed 
in corbelling.
The proposed CIAV project consists of inventarization, 
documentation, comparison, evaluation, with propositions for 
the use today. It opens the doors for all the collaborators, to 
improve the matter and to open – on scientific way – this rich 
heritage in stone to the public in all the media.
There is an extensive but isolated worldwide research in 
vernacular architecture (M. Correia). Ljubljana University 
has work in different cooperation projects with municipalities 
and local communities, both in Slovenia, Italy, Croatia, Bosnia, 
Austria, Great Britain, and in some research project of EU. 
The Conference ALPS ADRIA on Vernacular Architecture has 
been organized for 12 years.
The accomplished results during the last tens of years shows 
important relevance in  connecting traditional methods with 
technological innovations in computing presentations (some 
thousands of documentation files in F A). 
Surveying methods in researches on UL F A reflect good results in 
publishing (articles, books), in education (lectures, workshops, 
restoration works) and in science. F A researcher’s works had 
been translated into 12 languages and published in 23 countries.
Dry stone walling system and its constructions in corbelling 
represent the origins of architecture, concerning vernacular 
heritage. Its contribution to knowledge intends to establish 
synergies and consistent strategies for disclosure, documentation, 
evaluation and appreciation of vernacular architecture in the 
world. It is especially important for the CIAV, and would be 
highly appreciated for the whole UNESCO mission.
only used for hay and other products, such as corn and maize straw.
Kozolec is the most typical Slovene architecture, the only ethnic 
architecture that I know. It stands in all the Slovene ethnical teritory, 
except on the Karst and in Pannonian plain.
In central Slovenia and above all in Gorenjska, there are most 
elongated kozolci - around Škofja Loka, they can even be as long 
as 24 bays. While a low kozolec is the most recent form, the double 
kozolec is the most characteristic, with the most derivatives in its 
design (Juvanec, B 2007:45). There are thus two types of double 
kozolec: those above the river Sava and those below. Those above 
are slender, below are stocky. 
A double kozolec is a composition of two gables and at least one 
internal bay. The gables have braces, a relatively dense pattern 
of crossing beams, which primarily resist the wind, prevent the 
contents from falling out and, with their depth, create shade, 
which maintains as constant a temperature as possible, which is 
very necessary for both wheat and hay.
The essence of the erection of a kozolec is that it is longitudinal to 
the wind and transverse to the sun’ s rays. 
The roof of a kozolec is always symmetrical, always at an inclination 
of one to one or 45 degrees, almost everywhere – except with new, 
small kozolci – it is hipped. The hip derives from the thatched roof, 
by which the problem of wind in the gable is solved. Sadly, there 
have long been no more thatched roofs.
The most important element of construction of a kozolec is bound to 
a square and its diagonal. Insofar as the sides of a square equal one, 
its diagonal is the square root of two. The proportion system, used 
in a kozolec, shows two squares: the slender one has two squares, 
one above another, and the stocky one has one square into another. 
We learn this in primary school and it may seem too much learned. 
With a kozolec it is essential: it simplifies construction and, with 
simplicity, prevents possible mistakes. The angle created, 45 
degrees, is also essential in details (Juvanec,B 2007:67), since the 
construction principle of a kozolec is in the cutting the circular 
trunk of a tree, and beams mainly have a square profile.
A kozolec is today too big, too clumsy and too expensive. But, it 
represents our culture, which developed over many centuries and 
always in the order by which it was received with heritage. Not by 
recipe: each master added something of his own, but within the 
framework of rules created by nature, by the materials, by need. So 
all kozolci in Slovenia are uniform but no two are identical. A kozolec 
is a monument to the culture of our nation and it is today still in use.
Threatened dry stone walling system exists as the origin of 
architecture, in its simplest construction. The first aim was 
sheltering mankind. Corbelling means construction without 
cement, in layers, with overhangs, for some ten metres high 
compositions . The wall consists of constructional layer, the 
frame and filling inbetween.
Borut Juvanec
THE STONE ARCHITECTURE IN CORBELLING: 
SYSTEM OF DOCUMENTATION
VERSUS Congress, Restapia, Mediterra
ICOMOS CIA V
Cerveira, Portugalska, October 2013