For the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, the torch is not treated as an object to be admired, but as a supporting architecture for fire itself.
Designed by CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati, with engineering and production by Cavagna Group, the Olympic and Paralympic Torches and the Relay Cauldron place the flame—its visibility, vitality, and behavior—at the very heart of the project.
Commissioned by Eni, Premium Partner of the Games, and developed in collaboration with Versalis, the design unites material innovation, combustion engineering, and architectural restraint, ensuring that nothing overshadows the ritual it carries.
An Object Designed from the Inside Out
Unlike traditional torches, the Milano Cortina 2026 torch was conceived from the burner outward.
Every component is shaped around a high-performance combustion system, stripping the design down to what is strictly necessary.
For the first time in Olympic history, the internal ignition mechanism is made visible.
A longitudinal opening runs along the body of the torch, allowing spectators to witness the moment the flame is born—transforming ignition into a shared, observable act.
As Carlo Ratti, Founding Partner of CRA and Director of the MIT Senseable City Lab, explains:
“We wanted to strip away the superfluous. The brief was clear: the flame had to be the protagonist.”
Fire, Fuel, and Responsibility
The burner, developed with Cavagna Group, is powered by bio-LPG produced from 100% renewable feedstocks, including used cooking oils and agro-industrial residues.
The fuel is sourced from Eni’s Enilive biorefinery in Sicily, reinforcing the project’s commitment to environmental responsibility.
The flame burns with a warm yellow tone, selected for maximum visibility in daylight and broadcast conditions, while recalling the symbolic fire first lit in Olympia, Greece.
Materiality That Reflects the World
The torch’s body is finished with a PVD coating, a high-performance, heat-resistant, and durable film engineered to withstand repeated ignition cycles and harsh winter conditions.
Two versions were created—one for the Olympic Winter Games and one for the Paralympic Winter Games—sharing the same reflective, iridescent surface but distinguished by color:
- blue-green hues for the Olympic torch
- bronze tones for the Paralympic torch.
In both cases, the surface acts like a mirror, reflecting the surrounding landscape.
In low-light conditions, the torch almost disappears, making the flame appear to float in mid-air.
Constructed primarily from recycled aluminium and brass, each torch weighs approximately 1,060 grams (empty) and is designed for reuse, with a burner refillable up to ten times. This strategy limits production to just 1,500 torches, reducing material impact without diminishing ceremonial presence.
A Mobile Architecture for the Relay
Alongside the torch, CRA–Carlo Ratti Associati also designed the Relay Cauldron, a mini-cauldron conceived as a mobile architectural element accompanying the torch relay.
Deployed during approximately 80 public celebrations along the route, the cauldron translates the logic of the torch to a collective scale.
Its sculpted blade geometry generates a Venturi effect, shaping the flame into a vertical vortex that elongates and stabilizes it without increasing gas consumption.
The system remains fully operational even in extreme winter conditions, down to −20°C, while maintaining the same PVD finish and visual coherence as the torch.
Designing a Phenomenon, Not an Object
For Ratti, the challenge was not formal but elemental: “The biggest challenge was designing not just an object, but a phenomenon. Fire changes with motion, wind, altitude, and temperature. We had to start from that instability and work backwards.”
The project resonates with a lineage of restrained Olympic design, recalling Sori Yanagi’s torch for the Tokyo 1964 Games—an approach grounded in subtraction, clarity, and respect for the ritual.
Unlike many predecessors, the Milano Cortina torch invites us to look through it, beyond form and surface, toward the flame itself.
“The most powerful symbols are the ones that know when to step back,” Ratti concludes.
An Architecture That Lets the Flame Speak
Scheduled for the Olympic Winter Games from 6 to 22 February 2026, and the Paralympic Winter Games from 6 to 15 March 2026, the torches of Milano Cortina 2026 embody an architectural paradox:
an object meticulously designed so that it can almost disappear.
In doing so, CRA–Carlo Ratti Associati redefine the Olympic torch not as an icon, but as an architecture of fire—one that honors movement, ritual, and the shared gaze of the world.
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All the photos ©Milano Cortina 2026
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