Português
Pivô launches its first activations at Coaty with Circuito Lina, a walking program along Ladeira da Misericórdia, in partnership with the Municipality of Salvador
Expanding its presence in Salvador, Pivô, in partnership with the Prefeitura Municipal de Salvador, initiates a new chapter in the reactivation of Coaty, an architectural complex designed in the 1980s by Lina Bo Bardi and João Filgueiras Lima (Lelé), with the collaboration of architects Marcelo Ferraz and Marcelo Suzuki.
Aiming to reactivate the Ladeira da Misericórdia, 2026 marks the beginning of a phase of experimentation, public actions, and the gradual activation of the site, which is currently undergoing redevelopment by the Prefeitura Municipal de Salvador. While renovation works are in progress, Pivô Coaty begins on-site experimental activities, engaging with the ongoing transformations of the buildings and their surrounding territory. Among these actions is the Circuito Lina, a program of walks and guided visits that invites researchers, artists, architects, cultural agents, community leaders, and local residents to lead routes and conversations based on different readings of the Ladeira da Misericórdia.
The visits to the hillside symbolically resume a previous initiative by the Fundação Gregório de Mattos, which connected emblematic projects by Lina Bo Bardi in Salvador’s Centro Histórico, such as the Casa do Benin, the Teatro Gregório de Mattos, and Coaty itself. By reactivating the idea of this circuit, the program also rehearses the reintegration of the Ladeira da Misericórdia into the daily life of the city center, reopening it as a space for encounter, reflection, and urban imagination. At this initial stage, visits will focus exclusively on the buildings along the hillside and, at a later moment, aim to connect with other fully functioning spaces in the Historic Center.
Each meeting begins at Praça Tomé de Souza, where the context of the redevelopment plan designed by Lina Bo Bardi in 1986 for Salvador’s Historic Center is presented, in which the Ladeira da Misericórdia appears as a pilot urban intervention. The historical contextualization is led by architect and researcher Dilton de Almeida, professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the Federal University of Bahia (FAUFBA), who collaborates with Pivô on research related to projects connected to Coaty.
Participants are then guided to the hillside by invited guests who, in each walk, bring their own research focuses and singular relationships with the territory, whether through architecture, urban history, cultural and social practices, memory, or lived experiences in the city. Each visit therefore offers a new perspective shaped by the experience of its guest. The walk culminates at the Coaty restaurant building, where the collaborating researcher facilitates a conversation between the invited guests and the visiting public.
The walks are part of a broader effort of research and formulation that Pivô has been developing under the title Centro-Vivo: Archive and Research Laboratory of the Ladeira da Misericórdia, in collaboration with different agents from across the city. Since 2025, the initiative has promoted meetings and conversations with individuals whose trajectories intertwine with the history of the hillside, its buildings, and the meanings that Lina and many others have inscribed in this territory. These dialogues feed an ongoing process of listening and collective memory-building, which guides the educational axes and public programming that will accompany the future reopening of Coaty.
In this context, the Circuito Lina presents itself as a situated practice of listening and territorial investigation. Each meeting unfolds as an exercise in collective urban fabulation, in which space, memory, and imagination intertwine.
The visits take place once a month and are announced individually. The activity is free, with prior registration via an online form, and participation is granted on a first-come, first-served basis. The number of spots is limited, in accordance with access conditions and site restrictions due to ongoing construction. Registered participants will receive confirmation by email. Each walk is led by different invited guests, who bring their own research focuses and singular relationships with the territory, whether through architecture, urban history, cultural and social practices, memory, or lived experiences in the city.
Photo: Manuel de Sá