Seeking to understand the past and to design potential futures for Porto's lavadouros (public washhouses) the project Porto Think Tanks mapped these structures to generate thought and experimentation, aiming to requalify, enhance, and valorize material heritage and the practices and stories around it.

As public spaces linked to watercourses, neighborhood relations, and female sociability, the lavadouros can help reframe essential values to our times and improve a city-wide network. The project team surveyed these structures; working with archives, photography, video, and interviews with residents, they were able to trace the network of currently active and disused washhouses.

In the project's second stage, workshops were held with the local communities, aiming to facilitate proximity with citizens, activate memories, and boost ideas for revitalizing the lavadouros and its functions in the neighborhood or on a city-wide scale. The project paved the way for future actions involving the communities and experts from different disciplines.

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