The opening story | let the "big snowflakes" shine in the "silver ribbon"

On the evening of February 4, the main torch of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics was officially unveiled at the opening ceremony. Outside, after the main torch was lit, the torch stand on the award square between the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube, as well as the torch stand in Zhangjiakou and Yanqing, were also lit in turn. The crystalline "snowflakes" and the flexible "silver ribbon" rotate in opposite directions, light and elegant, becoming one of the highlights of the Winter Olympics.

▲ On the evening of February 4, after the main torch of the Winter Olympics was lit, the torch stand located in the awards square between the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube was also lit. Photo courtesy of Xinhua News Agency

The three off-site torch stations were designed by Marseille, a professor at the School of Fine Arts of Tsinghua University. The shape of the torch stand adds a wrapped "silver ribbon" and a mirrored chassis on the basis of the main torch of the opening ceremony, which plays a role in support and stability. The "big snowflakes" at the opening ceremony are presented in a fixed way with a central axis, with a total height of about 11 meters and a base table diameter of about 20 meters. Among them, the lower part of the base of the torch platform in the Olympic Central Area also added a stainless steel skirt base with a height of 1.3 meters and an outer diameter of 21.5 meters.

In November 2020, Professor Marseille's team was invited to director Zhang Yimou's studio. Zhang Yimou introduced to the team members the design trend of the main torch of the Olympic Games in recent years - more and more close to the public, highlighting the concept of simplicity, purity, environmental protection, science and technology, able to withstand climatic conditions such as cold and strong winds, and can be permanently retained after the game. The main creative team of the torch stand should give the core graphics more artistic beauty from the perspective of design, and realize the exquisite and complex effects of the core graphic movement under the premise of meeting the function and safety.

After receiving the design task, Marseille organized teachers and students from the Department of Industrial Design and the Department of Sculpture to conduct many analyses and discussions, and finally locked the image of snowflakes. On this basis, the team members carried out demonstration and design from many aspects such as artistic modeling, structure, gas function, etc., and submitted multiple sets of design plans in a short period of time. After demonstration and exclusion of other schemes, the design scheme of "concentric two-way rotation" was determined. In March 2021, this solution won the fierce competition. The shape of the "silver ribbon" haunts the olive branch symbolizing peace, and presents the undulating and changing form at different angles, which is an abstract expression of the speed, passion, rhythm, and pulsation of many events of the Winter Olympic Games. Through the change of light and the rotation of the glitter, the audience can not only appreciate the posture of dancing and flying, but also feel the speed, passion and holy beauty of ice and snow sports. In order to take into account the dynamic effect of the torch at night, the main creative team set up the light strip according to the shape of the torch stand, and added a hollowed-out small snowflake grille on the outer layer of the light strip to correct the light intensity effect. The overall lighting effect takes the olive branch as the core, and the "silver ribbon" and the chassis light are matched to create a strong sense of speed, rhythm and the holyness of ice and snow in the Winter Olympics. Hydrogen enters the torch through a rotating connector and an internal hollow pipe, achieving both aesthetics and practicality.

In this design, the main creative team cross-cooperated with the schools of civil engineering and machinery of Tsinghua University, which fully reflected the perfect integration of art and science. According to the relevant national standards and the historical weather data of the sculpture site, Professor Shi Yongyong of the School of Civil Engineering of Tsinghua University comprehensively considered factors such as wind load, snow pressure and self-weight, and worked with the team of the Academy of Fine Arts to maximize the preservation of aesthetic concepts while improving the strength of the olive branch support point. In terms of material, the main creative team finally chose stainless steel after a lot of experiments, and used the 8K polishing process.

It is reported that after the Winter Olympics, the torch platforms of the three major competition areas will be permanently left in Zhangjiakou, Yanqing and other places as Olympic heritage, becoming people's beautiful memories of the Winter Olympics.

Source Client The Winter Olympics | Reporter Wang Guangyan

Edited by Han Ye

Process Editor Liu Weili