New kinds of mechanically robust, porous polymeric materials with varied internal structures were produced using a newly designed water-in-oil (W/O) gel emulsion as a template. The density, internal structure, and mechanical properties of the porous materials can be easily and largely adjusted by varying the water content and the stabilizer (SiO2) amount in the relevant gel emulsions. Specifically, the density and compressive strength could be changed from 0.19 to 0.96 g/cm(3) and from a few MPa to more than 100 MPa, respectively. Importantly, the materials obtained demonstrated unusual low-frequency sound absorption properties. In addition, the gel emulsions created can be used as a new kind of 3D printable material, which allows polymerization after printing. In this way, complicated architectures can be produced.