The architect who has revolutionised the public perception of British design, first with the Seed Cathedral at the World Expo in 2010 and now with the Olympic Cauldron, Thomas Heatherwick explains his thinking behind the controversial fire in this video.
“It didn’t feel enough to design just a different shape of bowl on a stick,” he says. Instead, Heatherwick has designed 204 copper petals that when gathered and lit burn in a united flame.
The 204 petals represent the 204 participating countries and each petal was brought into the stadium by a different country. During the closing ceremony, the petals will be given back to the countries who will take it home as gift.
The controversy has arisen because visitors to the Olympic Park can’t view the cauldron without buying a ticket for the main stadium. Also, the cauldron had to be extinguished, dismantled and moved to accommodate the sporting events in the stadium.
One can’t help noticing the similar form of the Olympic Cauldron with Heatherwick’s pavilion for the United Kingdom at the 2010 World Expo. Called the Seed Cathedral, it comprised 60 000 fibre optic strands each with a seed embedded at the tip. If the element of the cauldron is fire, then the element of the cathedral was wind. At the end, each fibre optic strand was given to a school in Britain.
To better understand the working of both the Olympic Cauldron and the Seed Cathedral, there is currently an interactive exhibition of Heatherwick’s work showing at the V&A Museum in London. Short of actually being in London, do also watch this video tour that the bumbling Brit gives of his show.
