Salvador: The Struggle for Dialogue Within a Heritage City

Founded by the Portuguese in the mid-16th century as the colonial capital of Brazil, Salvador da Bahia on the northeast coast retains to this day a unique historical centre. Now a burgeoning metropolis, Salvador is also the country's third largest city with all the social, political and infrastructure problems and inequalities that accompany explosive urban growth. Sergio Ekerman, an architect and professor at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) in Salvador, describes how a lack of political will and consensus between private and public stakeholders is failing to produce the dialogue necessary for coherent urban development.