2026 Olympic and Paralympic Torches: in Carlo Ratti's minimalism ‘the flame is the protagonist’

Carlo Ratti has designed the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Torches for the upcoming Milano Cortina games. Titled Essential, his design has just been revealed, crafted using a minimalist approach that celebrates high technical innovation, while making sure the Olympic flame remains the undisputed ‘protagonist’.

The architect, curator and educator has been having a moment; he’s been busy putting together the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025, which is set to open next month, and he has also been behind the French Pavilion at the 2025 Expo Osaka (together with Coldefy), which opened this weekend. The torch design cements his contribution in the coming Winter Olympics, too, which will take place next year in his home country.

2026 Olympic and Paralympic Torches: Carlo Ratti's design

Talking to us about his plans for the biennale earlier in the year, Ratti discussed his architectural approach, which aims to balance the natural and the artificial; innovative design and technology, and the beauty and harmony found within the natural world. He said at the time: ‘One of the key things to look at today is how architecture can bridge the natural and the artificial. Linking the two worlds is, I think, something that's particularly important today.’

His take on the torch design draws on the same principles. Produced by Cavagna, the piece is 100 per cent made in Italy. It will be made from a reflective recycled aluminium and brass alloy, which was chosen to mirror the scenery around it, telling the story of the flame’s journey, while its burner fuel will be a bio-LPG that uses renewable raw materials, such as cooking oil. The Olympic and Paralympic torches have distinctive colour tones, too – blue-green and bronze respectively.

‘We understood from the very start that what’s important isn’t the torch, but the flame. So we started to think how we could avoid designing the torch in a way, and emphasize the power and beauty of the flame instead,’ says Ratti about the torch design specifically. ‘When it comes to the Olympic torch, the core is something that’s very sophisticated but the design exercise is usually about covering it, similar to car design where you build something around the engine. What we wanted to do is to minimize what we put around the core, and not to do something redundant for the sake of form.’

Created by Ratti's Milan-based studio, Carlo Ratti Associatti, the torches were developed with Eni, the partner providing the energy for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, in collaboration with its subsidiary company Versalis (also an official supporter of the 2026 Games).

‘When people think about Italy they think about innovation but usually in the past. But there is so much innovation happening today in Italy, and that’s what we wanted to bring to the design of the torch,’ says the architect. ‘For me, the Olympics is all about collaboration, and the creation of the torch was also about collaboration. In a way, the torch is a microcosm of the whole Olympics.’

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