Thomas Heatherwick denies plagiarism in Olympic cauldron row
Thomas Heatherwick, designer of the iconic Olympic cauldron which wowed spectators at last summer’s London Olympics, has been forced to deny accusations that the design was lifted from a concept presented to Games organisers in 2007.
New York design studio Atopia has pointed out striking similarities between their submission and the scheme ultimately built by Heatherwick after being un-gagged by the end of a restrictive non-disclosure order in place since 2007.
Atopia co-director Jane Harrison said: “We were absolutely furious. It looked identical to something we had proposed to the London Olympic committee back in 2007, after which we hadn't heard anything."
Conceived five years prior to the main event Harrison said their design was intended as “… a structure of petals on tall stems, which would travel from all of the participating countries, then be brought into the stadium by children. The petals would be assembled during the opening ceremony to form a flower-like canopy, and distributed back to the different nations after the Games."
Heatherwick’s copper forest bears a striking resemblance to this concept, although rather than collect rainwater collect solar energy it burned a steady stream of natural gas.
A spokesperson for Heatherwick Studio said: “This has come completely out of the blue," a spokesperson for Heatherwick Studio said. "We have never seen this project before, nor were we made aware of it by Locog. The creative ideas for the cauldron were very much born from a conversation between Danny Boyle and Thomas Heatherwick."