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. 2021 Mar 2;9(1):27. doi: 10.1186/s40494-021-00500-9

Table 6.

Roof-building engineering solutions in traditional architecture in Malta [2, 40, 42]

Span (s) Roof building engineering solutions
0.7 m < s ≤ 2.00 m 2.0 m is the maximum span of a xriek without failing in tension
2.0 m < s ≤ 2.75 m The effective span of the space at roof level is reduced to 2.0 m (and thus can be roofed by a xriek tal-qasab) by: either sloping gently the walls or adding corbelling (Maltese: kileb) below the roofing slabs
s > 2.75 m At ground floor level, masonry arches are used at circa 1.2 m intervals with xorok spanning from one arch to the other; at upper levels: the masonry arches are replaced by timber beams.