A structure is the part of a building that carries its weight, and for at least half the world’s civil engineers, structures are most of civil engineering. We should also remember that anything built is a structure. (From an aero-plane engineer’s point of view, an aero-plane also is a structure.) A structural design is the design of building structures. The building as a whole is designed by an architect, particularly in a densely populated area. For water engineers, sewage-treatment engineers, and municipal engineers, structures are not always an important part of their work though even a road or a pipe is a structure since they both carry load.

Every structural design includes the foundation design. One of the commonest foundations is that for a concrete column or a steel stanchion. It is generally designed for the same maximum load as the column, and usually is an independent (pad) foundation. Where the pads in one row become so large that they nearly touch, it is convenient to join them into a continuous ( or trip) for foundation which generally will be cheaper to dig and to concrete than the same foundations built separately as pads.
結構物是建筑物的一部分，它支承建筑物的重量。對于世界上至少半數(shù)以上的土木工程師來說，結構物大部分是土木工程結構。我們也必須明確： 任何建造的東西都是一個結構物（從飛機工程師的觀點來看，飛機也是一個結構物）。結構物可以一所住宅，可以是埃及的金字塔，安第斯山的耶穌雕像，或者是水瀨建造的橫貫加拿大河流的堰壩。一座房屋建筑物是一個有屋頂?shù)慕Y構物，而土木工程結構設計的很大一部分就是房屋建筑結構的設計。建筑物作為一個整體來說，是由建筑師設計的，在人口稠密地區(qū)更是如此。對于給水工程師、污水處理工程師和市政工程師來說，結構物并不總是他們工作中的重要部分，但是一條道路或一條管道也是結構物，因為這兩者均支承荷載。
任何結構設計都包括基礎設計。最常見的基礎之一是混凝土柱或鋼支柱的基礎。這種基礎一般按柱的最大荷載設計通常為獨立（單柱）基礎，當排成一列的單柱基礎太大,以致幾乎互相接觸時，最好把它連接起來形成連續(xù)（條形）基礎。連續(xù)基礎的土方開挖和混凝土澆灌費用比分別做成數(shù)個單柱基礎的同樣基礎要低廉。
聯(lián)合基礎就是其中的單獨基礎也會大得幾乎相互接觸的一種基礎，但它與條形基礎不同，它可以承受一排以上的柱子傳來的荷載。聯(lián)合基礎最終發(fā)展成筏式(底板或滿堂式)基礎，在這種基礎里，所有的單柱基礎聯(lián)合起來形成一整塊鋼筋混凝土板，其厚度可以變化，但通常整塊的厚度相等 。