Every year the community is invited to take part and help keep this Porto tradition alive.

Ceramicist Teresa Branco, from Oficina Brâmica, has been responsible for this project since 2016. ‘Porto, despite being a dark city due to the granite, is full of colour due to the tiles. All these elements that make up the Community Waterfall, especially the miniature houses, are full of colour and life.’

The Community Cascata invites people to reproduce part of the city's architectural identity. In the ceramics workshops, everyone is free to choose the shape, design, size or colours of the house they make in clay.

A project by the city for the city

In the centre of the Oficina Brâmica, where the sunlight comes through the skylight that gives access to the terrace, two tables support the hundreds of clay pieces that will be on display at the Bolhão Market in a week's time. These works will pass through the hands of Lisa, Lucie and Marco, three of the participants in the free workshops to build the Community Cascata.

Lisa Barbosa is 25 years old, has a degree in Fine Arts specialising in sculpture and later attended a ceramics course. ‘I'm a ceramicist and I'm collaborating with Teresa Branco on this project, which is very beautiful. There is a lack of projects in which the community can actively participate and I see this workshop as a privilege, to be able to take part in a project in which everyone is in the same space and which is a common good for the city.’

She was born in Barcelos, but moved to Porto seven years ago. In her left hand she holds the miniature clay house she is going to paint and in her right hand she holds the brush, which she uses to dip into the different glass bowls in front of her, where she can choose colours such as pink, green or yellow.

With dreadlocks in her hair and a sweet voice, Lisa says she finds inspiration in the city, ‘and that's why it makes perfect sense to have the city as a reference. For me, São João is a day to get together with family and friends, it's a very special day to create memories’

Sitting on the bench next to her is Lucie Lorsi, 19, from France. She's been in Porto for just over a month to do an internship at the Brâmica workshop. ‘I study ceramics in Paris. To do this work I found inspiration in the streets of Porto, on the metro journeys where I cross the Luis I Bridge and see all those little houses on the hillside, all those colours.’

By taking part in the Community Cascata, Lucie says she feels more integrated into the city. ‘It helps you get to know the language and culture better. For example, I didn't know what a majerico was and now with this work I do.’

Lucie isn't the only foreigner taking part in this workshop. Marco Perez is French, 19 years old and just finishing a vocational course. With brush in hand and green paint, he is drawing a tree on the façade of one of the clay houses. ‘I don't know ceramics very well, but I'm learning, we help each other. I made some houses, it was easy and now we're painting. It's very freeform work.

Marco didn't know about the festivities in Porto, but he says that ‘in the south of France they also celebrate St John. Now I'll be able to get to know the festivities in Porto, it'll be good.’

Workshops at Bolhão attended by all ages

Ceramicist Teresa Branco explains that there have been three workshops as part of the Community Cascata project. ‘The first was held on World Children's Day. Modelling is a work of great expression and we get very creative elements for the waterfall. There were 570 participants on Children's Day alone.’

The second stage is based on two workshops, which take place at Brâmica and ‘this is where we usually paint with engobe, a clay dye, and then when the pieces are baked at 1020 degrees they are sealed and come out of the oven coloured. We focus more on ochre colours, such as yellow, green and blue. The idea is to make unglazed pieces, otherwise we'd have the reflection of the tiles, but to make the colours of the tiles.’

In a third phase, she admits, ‘we have workshops at the Bolhão Market, on 7 and 8 June. These workshops have a more adult population, with more refined fine motor skills, and we've found some real artists.’

Teresa Branco says that this is a project for all ages and the diversity of ‘artists’ brings richness to the cascade. ‘We've created themes that meet this intergenerational difference. For example, in the children's workshops we made lots of basil, hammers, little fish, lots of elements that will decorate the waterfall. Now at the Bolhão Market we're going to challenge those taking part in the workshop to make bridges to the river, some of the city's emblematic monuments, fountains, more elaborate elements.’

Crafting an interpretation of the city

In the Brâmica ceramics workshop, at 181 Rua de Santo Isidro, in the centre of Porto, you can hear birds and a bell that every hour warns of the passing of time.

Teresa Branco says that ‘this year we had a very high percentage of immigrants in the workshops and the fact that they are collaborating in this initiative, honouring the city of Porto, gives them a sense of belonging. It was enriching. In terms of social intervention, this project has been presented to the city in a very structured way and people realise that the cascata is part of the historical language of this city, it's from Porto and I'm going to be part of this project. It's important, it's a form of participation that also gives us indicators that people like their city, want to be part of it and participate as much as they can.’