<p>The present study proposes an innovative technique for estimating lower bound limit loads of strip footings resting on purely cohesive soils. In this technique, the problem geometry is simulated by disconnected nodes and the requirements of lower bound solution are fulfilled locally around each node. In this context, stress field is discretized by Shepard’s shape functions, and equilibrium and non-yielding conditions are satisfied locally in each support domain. In order to impose boundary conditions, an iterative process is introduced. This approach leads to small-scale optimization problems which can be solved by modest computer systems. Finally, by using an illustrative example, the efficiency and applicability of the proposed method have been validated.</p>