黑洞社区

London鈥檚 spectacular Olympic cauldron was designed as an 鈥榓ltar鈥� to complete the 鈥榯emple鈥� of the 2012 stadium, its mastermind has revealed.

Speaking to 黑洞社区, designer Thomas Heatherwick called the stadium - designed by Populous and built by Sir Robert McAlpine - the 鈥渟ymbolic temple of this extraordinary sporting event鈥�.

The cauldron, made up of 204 long mechanical rods boasting individually-formed copper 鈥榩etals鈥� at their tips, came together to form a single flame in the finale of Danny Boyle鈥檚 acclaimed opening ceremony last Friday night.

Speaking on the fringes of the Creative Industries Summit at the British Business Embassy at Lancaster House, Heatherwick said the idea was for the cauldron to become the 鈥渃entrepoint鈥� of the stadium.

鈥淏y placing it absolutely at the centre of the stadium, somehow the stadium would become part of the cauldron,鈥� he said.

鈥淭he proportions of the cauldron are exactly the same proportions as the stadium. The stadium is slightly oval and so is the cauldron. It needed to embrace the stadium and not fight the architecture.鈥�

He said the design also reflected a 鈥渉umble鈥� desire to get away from earlier, conventionally-formed Olympic cauldrons, which he said had become steadily larger.

鈥淭he idea was not to design another bowl on a stick,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he idea was that there was no cauldron until the countries arrived, this is the nature of the games 鈥� without those 204 countries there is no games.

鈥淚 like the idea that there is no cauldron at the end. It is dispersed and will only come together again if all 204 countries decide to have a reunion.鈥�

Boyle approached Heatherwick to design the cauldron after seeing his B of the Bang sculpture in Manchester.

The project was created in top secret conditions over a two year period in a high-tech 鈥榮hed鈥� in Harrogate.

It was worked on by local engineering firm Stage One, which has also worked on several Serpentine pavilions with Arup.

The cauldron contains a series of motors and 10 moving rings.

Heatherwick called it an 鈥渋ncredibly complex piece of engineering鈥� and admitted he broke all the rules in devising it.

鈥淭he brief from the technical team was to make sure that there were no moving parts so we were quite embarrassed to present it initially to the team.

鈥淏ut everyone grabbed it and said 鈥榶es鈥�.鈥�

He admitted he had been nervous about the operation of the cauldron at the key moment but said he had confidence in all those involved.

Responding to 黑洞社区鈥檚 2012 campaign, Heatherwick, who also designed the British pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai Expo and the new London double-decker bus, said he was proud of the overall 鈥渃onfidence鈥� shown by the construction industry.