MLA OPTIONS STUDIO FIELD REPORT: LA5701 | MLA STUDIO COUNTRY: THE RAINBOW HOUSE: DESIGNING WITH MORE-THAN-HUMANS IN AN AFRO-BRAZILIAN SACRED GROVE (TERREIRO) IN SALVADOR DA BAHIA, BRAZIL

The Rainbow House field trip to Casa de Oxumarê in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, served as an integral component of the Master of Landscape Architecture option design studio led by tutor Gareth Doherty. The studio focuses on Casa de Oxumarê—the House of the Energy of the Rainbow—in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil. Over the course of one week, from September 19–26, 2026, the students explored its highly designed landscape and the spatial and material principles transmitted across generations through ritual practice, observation, and close engagement with the land.

Afro-Brazilian sacred groves, or terreiros, are landscapes in which plants, buildings, rituals, deities, and generations of accumulated knowledge are brought into relation. They might be understood, in part, as combinations of urban farm and monastery: places where nature is cultivated as an integral part of Afro-Brazilian spiritual life.

As Salvador expands and densifies, terreiros face increasing encroachment and pressure on their green areas, even as rituals extend beyond their boundaries into public spaces across the city. Through fieldwork and design, the studio explores these changing relationships while addressing three interconnected challenges: stabilizing Casa de Oxumarê’s steep slopes; reconsidering the arrangement of its buildings and sacred spaces; and strengthening its relationship with the surrounding city, both now and over the next 100 years.

Rather than approaching Casa de Oxumarê simply as a site upon which to design, we ask what can be learned by designing with a landscape whose spatial knowledge has been cultivated over generations.

Special thanks to Collaborators：

Casa de Oxumarê

Moisés Lino e Silva, Federal University of Bahia

Camila Gomes Sant’Anna, University of Brasília

Bruna Azevedo, Federal University of Bahia

Fábio Velame, Federal University of Bahia

Adriano Mascarenhas, Sotero Architects

Leonardo Finotti