Foundation engineering is the science of building in and with soil. Soil mechanics is the theoretical basis for this and includes model concepts for soils, the performance of tests to describe their properties and the calculation methods for determining the stress and deformation of foundation engineering structures. The interaction between soil and structure is of particular importance in the calculation. Structures are built using different construction methods, which are bound to certain application limits due to their close connection with the subsoil conditions.

Soil mechanics is one of the core disciplines of civil engineering. The corresponding professorship was established at Graz University of Technology in 1964 under the leadership of O.Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn. Dr.h.c. Christian Veder (1964-1978). This was followed by the institute's heads O.Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn. Heinz Brandl (1978-1981), O.Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Martin Fuchsberger M.Sc. (1982-1993), O.Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn. Stephan Semprich Prof.onor. (1993-2011) and Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn. Roman Marte (2012-2024). On August 1st, 2024, Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn. Franz Tschuchnigg took over as head of the institute.

A laboratory equipped with modern testing technology is available for scientific soil mechanics investigations. In situ measurements, an essential component of the observational method frequently used in geotechnics, complement the research-led teaching at the institute. The focus of research activities is on the further development of technologies used in the realization of foundation engineering structures.

At the institute, the Computational Geotechnics Group was established in 1997 under the direction of Prof. Helmut F. Schweiger and was taken over in 2019 by Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn. Franz Tschuchnigg. The working group focuses on the development of advanced constitutive models as well as on complex three-dimensional finite element analyses of geotechnical problems.

In 1994, the three geotechnical institutes of Graz University of Technology merged:
- Institute of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering
- Institute of Rock Mechanics and Tunneling
- Institute for Applied Geosciences
merged to form the Gruppe Geotechnik Graz (GGG). Since 2025, the group has been operating under the name GeoTechTUGraz. The aim is cross-institute cooperation in the field of geotechnics in research and teaching. As part of this cooperation, the annual Christian Veder Kolloquium, topic-specific workshops and a geotechnical lecture series are organised.