11. Conclusion

Shallow foundations are still the most widely used foundation method in the world, as they are the simplest and most economical in most cases.

The transition to Eurocodes has not revolutionized geotechnical engineering, but it has "dusted off" our habits. It has reminded all professionals that the justification of any structure, however simple, must include a phase of reflection on its construction, use and constraints, in order to verify that none of these cases will endanger the structure or those who use it.

Of course, all these checks don't necessarily require elaborate calculations, and common sense can solve many problems.

What's more, for more complex structures and sites, numerical modeling opens up promising avenues. Today's software enables us to understand problems in three dimensions, with models that...