The Paper describes a means of characterizing the macrofabric features in soils based on their nature, form and spatial arrangement. The features are considered at three levels of arrangement—the basic, related and referred levels—which allows correlations between individual groups and various external axes or surfaces to be made. The proposed system is detailed for layered soils and soils containing discontinuities and recommendations are given for the observations to be made and the classification terminology to be used. Relationships between the nature, form and spatial arrangement of macrofabric features and laboratory measurements of the engineering properties of soils are built up. It is emphasised throughout that the use of the macrofabric data and the suggested relationships with those measured properties are meant to aid the choice of appropriate sampling and testing techniques and not to replace them. L'Article decrit une methode caracterisant la macrostructure des sols selon leur nature, leur f...