Every Olympic Games has a torch. Every torch has a designer. For the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, that designer is MIT engineer and architect Carlo Ratti.
A winter sports enthusiast, Ratti owns the architectural firm Carlo Ratti Associati and is originally from Turin, Italy—which hosted the Winter Games in 2006. His firm’s work has been featured at numerous international expositions, including the French Pavilion at the Osaka Expo (World’s Fair) in 2025. The Cloud, a 400-foot tall spherical structure, was also a finalist for a special observation deck at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Olympic organizers invited Ratti to design this year’s torch, and he used several of his teaching principles when approaching the project.
“It is about what the object or the design is to convey,” Ratti said in a statement. “How it can touch people, how it can relate to people, how it can transmit emotions. That’s the most important thing.”
“Essential” was designed to perform regardless of the weather, wind, or altitude it would encounter on its journey from Olympia to Milan. The torch “aims to combine both past and future,” says designer Carlo Ratti, a professor of the practice at MIT who hails from Turin, Italy. Image: Photo courtesy of Milano Cortina 2026.
The official name for the 2026 Winter Olympic torch is “Essential.” Importantly, it was built to work no matter the weather, wind, or altitude the torch would encounter on its over 7,000-mile-long journey from Olympia, Greece to Milan, Italy. In total, the design process took three years to complete with collaboration from several researchers and engineers.
“Each design pushed the boundaries in different directions, but all of them with the key principle to put the flame at the center,” said Ratti, adding that he wanted the torch to embody “an ethos of frugality.”
Credit: Milano Cortina 2026
As for the ever important flame, a high-performance burner powered by bio-GPL produced from 100 percent renewable feedstocks by energy company ENI is at the core of the torch. Previously, the torches were only used once, but “Essential” can be recharged 10 times so fewer torches needed to be built.
“Essential” also boasts a unique internal mechanism that can be seen through a vertical opening along its side. This means that audiences can peek inside and see the burner in action. From a design perspective, that reinforces Ratti’s desire to keep the emphasis on the flame itself and not the object.
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At just under 2.5 pounds, “Essential” is the lightest torch created for the Olympics and is primarily made from recycled aluminum. The body is finished with a PVD coating that is heat resistant. This special finish allows the torch to shift colors by reflecting the environments it is carried through, whether that be Milan’s bright city lights or the peaks of the Dolomites.
The Olympic torch is a blue-green shade, and the Paralympic torch is gold. It also won an honorable mention in Italy’s most prestigious industrial design award, the Compasso d’Oro.
Professor of the practice Carlo Ratti with his design: the 2026 Winter Olympic Torch. Image: Photo courtesy of Milano Cortina 2026.
Throughout the process, the flame was the most fundamental aspect of the torch. The flame was considered sacred in ancient Greece and it will stay lit throughout the entire 16 days of competition.
A recurring symbol in both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, the torch gets attention long before the first puck drop or downhill run. Its journey for the 2026 Olympics began in late November and will have covered all 110 Italian provinces before it arrives in Milan in time for the opening ceremony on February 6. Ratti carried the torch for a portion of its journey through Turin in January. He hopes that the torch and games showcase the Italy of today and of the future.
“When people think about Italy, they often think about the past, from ancient Romans to the Renaissance or Baroque period,” he said. “Italy does indeed have a significant past. But the reality is that it is also the second-largest industrial powerhouse in Europe and is leading in innovation and tech in many fields. So, the 2026 torch aims to combine both past and future. It draws on Italian design from the past, but also on future-forward technologies.”
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