The Olympic Flame

Whilst I have been an avid viewer of the Olympic coverage and even been lucky enough to get tickets for the Women's Hockey which was a fantastic day out, (off to the Paralympic Games tomorrow), the one feature that really stood out for me from a design perspective was the Olympic Cauldron.

It was designed by Thomas Heatherwick Studio which was also responsible for some of my other favourite pieces of architecture, namely the East Beach Cafe and the great mesh delight at Guys Hospital.

It may be our Olympics and of course we are going to be slightly biased but this design for the Cauldron has to be the best ever. When I was watching it and wondering how they were going to light it and wondering why everyone was carrying these strange shaped metal objects in to the Stadium. I was so fascinated when the arms started to rise up to join together in the middle that my jaw must have been nearly on the floor. It is a piece of stunning engineering and design that I am looking forward to seeing in the flesh on Friday. It isn't very often that you would use the words engineering and beautiful in the same sentence but it was a beautiful moment for me seeing it being lit and rising up.

Also, when the Olympics has ended and it is time to extinguish the flame it has always seemed like a non event but this time when it was the end of the games, watching the arms slowly falling down and the individual flames going out, it was quite emotional and made for a stunning spectacle and one that will live in my memory for years to come.