Hey everyone, long time lurker, first time poster.
I've been trying to read up on all the speculation so far on the cauldron design (there's a lot in this forum and others, so I apologize if I get something wrong), and I was just thinking to myself: "If I wanted to build a tall tower for the cauldron (if indeed there will be a tower), have it remain hidden, and appear during the OC in some dramatic fashion, where would I put it?"
I thought I was the first to think of this, but it turns out Citizen-Seth (from a late April post) beat me to it. The stadium is surrounded on three sides by a modified waterway to create the Stadium Island. If I wanted something spectacular and surprising, I'd have the tower rise up from the water. Whether the cauldron would already be on the tower or would make its way to the top of the tower somehow is another debate. Personally, I would love it if the cauldron could first be seen by EVERYONE in the stadium (not even Beijing accomplished that), then it somehow gets up to the tower/permanent location for everyone outside.
Now I'm just going to throw out two "out there" ideas. The "tower" could use a similar mechanism as Heatherwick's rolling bridge, meeting another "tower" halfway up, creating an arch over the footpaths. Or running with the arch over footpaths idea, the base could be triangular in shape, each side rising from the water and meeting to create a triangle that may even lean toward the stadium (the hypotenuse is the waterway in this instance).
Unfortunately, the audience in the stadium wouldn't see the tower rising out of the water. As much as I love the idea, it doesn't seem dramatic enough to just see that happen on the jumbo screen in the stadium and only see the top appear above the lights after it's been rising up for a while.
As an engineer, I want to see an ingenious mechanism for the cauldron and tower. As a filmmaker, I want the cauldron lighting to be dramatic and elegant. Sydeny's OC came close to achieving a good balance, but the technical difficulties made it feel too mechanical. Athens' was elegant, but a bit too simple for my taste. Beijing was too drawn out (the running in the air part) and wasn't a "good show" for the TV audience compared to the stadium audience. I hope London can achieve as near-perfect a cauldron lighting as possible, and Heatherwick seems like the man to do that.
P.S. Sorry for the long post.