Quote Originally Posted by smullenpe
Quote Originally Posted by dirtydog
First one, generally footings and beam work as the walls are not load bearing. can be made to any height within reason.

I'm a structural engineer and it's first time I heard in my life that footings and beam as walls are not load bearing. I can understand if it was a slab on grade but foots? What's going to carry the load to the soil. Normally, you do your utilities before you pour floor slab. And if you are going to excavate to have basement or cellar, you do need a foundation wall of some sort including mat foundation or footings depending on the soil condition.
If you read DD's post properly, you'll see that he says that the beams are load bearing, that's what they're there for. So they make a steel reinforced concrete frame and fill the gaps with block or brick. This is the same for a bungalow or a skyscraper (they often use glass instead of block/brick though).