Duo of expanding Winter Olympic cauldrons revealed for Milano Cortina 2026
Italian designer Marco Balich has revealed a pair of cauldrons that will be set up in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo during this year's Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Set to be lit and extinguished "in perfect synchrony", the pair of cauldrons will be placed in Milan and nearby ski resort Cortina d'Ampezzo to mark the fact that the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games will be hosted across both locations.
"For the first time in history, the cauldrons will be lit and extinguished in perfect synchrony, in two different cities, symbolizing a widespread edition of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games that brings territories and communities together," said the Olympic organisers.
Designed by Balich, chief creative officer of Balich Wonder Studio, in collaboration with Lida Castelli and Paolo Fantin, the pair of cauldrons was informed by the sun, the work of Italian Renaissance designer Leonardo da Vinci and expanding plastic ball toys.
Made from aeronautical aluminium, the kinetic structures will expand and contract to evoke the "natural cycle of the sun".
Each cauldron will be made from 1,440 components with 244 pivot points, allowing it to expand from a diameter of 3.1 meters when closed to 4.5 meters when open. A glass-and-metal container at the centre will enclose the Olympic flame.
"The cauldron of Milano Coutino starts from the beautiful genius of Leonardo da Vinci," explained Balich. "Leonardo da Vinci lived in Milan a long time and he developed many, many new things and one of them was his study of geometry.
"But, I got inspired by this very simple game that you see in the toy store, which is this plastic ball that opens up and closes," he continued. "So we took that inspiration and we put it in motion and added some technology to it to celebrate his great genius."
In Milan the cauldron will be raised on a frame within the Arco della Pace triumphal arch, while in Cortina d'Ampezzo it will be supported on a tripod in the town's central Piazza Dibona.
The designs are the latest Olympic cauldrons to incorporate movement, rather than being a typical reciprocal for flame. For the Paris 2024 Olympic Games French designer Mathieu Lehanneur created a flame that floated under a hot air ballon, while the Tokyo 2020 Olympic cauldron, designed by Japanese studio Nendo, was wrapped in aluminium panels that unfurled to reveal the flame.
In 2016, American artist Anthony Howe created a large kinetic sculpture to complement the Rio Olympic cauldron and the London 2012 Olympic Cauldron, designed by Thomas Heatherwick, was formed of 204 copper petals that were raised to form a central flame.
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