The document discusses the design of raft foundations. Raft foundations are used in weak soil conditions, with high structure loads relative to soil bearing capacity, or where isolated footings would interfere. The types of raft foundations include flat plates, plates thickened under columns, waffle slabs, and plates with pedestals. The design process involves dividing the raft into vertical and horizontal strips to calculate soil pressures, bending moments, and shear forces. Column loads are summed and average soil pressure is calculated. A coefficient is applied to column loads to estimate strip forces for reinforcement design. An example shows checking soil pressure limits and calculating member properties.