Settlement Reached Over Olympic Cauldron Design
John Hill
24. July 2014
Photo: Wikimedia Commons (Inset: Atopia)
The organizers of the 2012 Olympics in London have reached an out-of-court settlement with Atopia over the design of the Cauldron that was witnessed by close to one billion people during the opening ceremony.
Attributed to Thomas Heatherwick, the Olympic Cauldron was made from 204 copper "petals," one for each participating country. Athletes from each country brought the petals to a clearing, then "over the next minute or so, the 204 separate flames converged to form one great flame of unity surging into the sky, making this a giant kinetic sculpture in the center of the stadium," according to Heatherwick Studio.
Yet as the Guardian revealed in 2013, the Cauldron design was unmistakably similar to a proposal by Atopia, which was hired by the Olympic organizers to develop a sustainability framework for the Summer Games. One part of Atopia's 2008 submission included the "One Planet Object," pictured in the inset above.
In a July 18, 2014, statement issued by the joint liquidators of LOCOG (The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Limited), "LOCOG recognizes that, between 2006-8, designers from Atopia were engaged in the consulting and tender process relating to a proposed project for showcasing sustainability at the London 2012 Games by means of a temporary structure that LOCOG referred to in its request for tender as the 'One Planet Pavilion'."
The statement further acknowledges the "5 features for [Atopia's] design scenario":
- the flower-shaped forms to be brought into the opening ceremony by ‘bearers’ in each participating nations team;
- as part of the ceremony the ‘bearers’ to pass each flower shaped form to the ‘next generation’ to be ‘planted’ and ‘deployed’ as a pavilion; and
- after the Games the flower shaped forms to be returned to the participating nations."
Yet per yesterday's Guardian article that broke the settlement, it "states no admission of liability," and "legal action took the form of breach of confidence proceedings, rather than copyright infringement, with Locog's liquidators keen to tie up loose ends to avoid the case going to court."
While the settlement amount has not been made public, the Guardian states: "Atopia will be making a donation to its non-profit subsidiary to support development work in Africa."