Advanced porous ceramics have been widely investigated in the area of Materials Science because they exhibit unique and special features in relation to their dense bulk. This behavior is arising from their designed porous structure, which can be manipulated by adjusting a set of parameters as overall percentage of porosity, pore size and shape, pore size distribution, porosity gradient and microstructure. From the industrial point of view, these materials have a technological potential as ceramic membranes and filters for gas separation or liquid waste pretreatment, biomaterials for hard tissue repair, electrodes for solid oxide fuel cells, reactors for catalytic reactions, and so on. Currently, there is an enormous interest from researchers in new processing approaches able to offer an efficient control on the composition, microstructure and porosity of materials as well as operational advantages of low cost, environmentally friendly and easy handling. Therefore, we propose a simple and versatile approach for the preparation of ceramics with porosity gradient. This study was based on MnO₂/SnO₂ bi-layered pellets conformed via uniaxial pressure and sintered at 1100 °C and 1300 °C for different times. MnO₂ layer played the role of sintering aid, while the SnO₂ layer was chosen as ceramic matrix to be densified. The experimental data revealed that the overall percentage of porosity, pore size and shape in SnO₂ layer were controlled by sintering variables (temperature and time). A correlation between the porosity gradient in SnO₂ with the Mn concentration gradient was identified in this system. Thus, the areas containing high concentrations of Mn species were responsible for the improvement in densification of SnO₂, especially close to the MnO₂/SnO₂ interface.