Ground and structure
Foundation
housingschoolbridgehigh-rise building
It is the part of the structure that lies below ground and receives the weight of the building to spread it into the soil. It can be a strip under the walls, a pad under each column or a deep foundation with piles.
What it solves
It prevents the building from sinking or tilting unevenly. In the tropics it must also withstand earthquakes, clay soils that change with the rain and water running underground.
Today
It is designed from a soil study and the real weight of the building. Tie beams should connect the foundations so the house moves as a single piece during an earthquake.
Common mistake
Copying the neighbor’s foundation without knowing your own soil, especially on fill or hillsides.
Tomorrow
A foundation of screw piles or stone blocks can be removed without breaking the ground and used again. Thinking from the start about how the building will be taken apart is also designing its base.
Fact Shallow footings usually sit about one meter below grade, although the final depth is set by the soil study.
Where it comes from
- 1Timber and stone construction many regions of the world, since prehistory
The simplest form was a flat stone under the post, which spreads the load and keeps the timber away from ground moisture. - 2Ancient cultures of China China, common around 2000 BC
Rammed earth in layers (hangtu) was used for foundations and walls. - 3Adobe house Costa Rica, 18th and 19th centuries
Foundations were built in trenches with river stone and mud or with stone, lime and sand, the so-called calicanto.
Appears in the routes
See also
Also in Ground and structure
Diagrams and texts by LDB Arquitectura. They are shared under the CC BY 4.0 license, which allows them to be used and adapted with credit to the source.