

Images of a proposal for a pavilion shown to LOCOG in 2007 by New York design studio Atopia were published by The Guardian newspaper this morning and show a cluster of petals atop long slender poles that looks strikingly like the design by Heatherwick Studio, which consisted of 204 copper petals that came together to create a single flame.

Heatherwick, who was awarded a CBE on the Queen's 2013 Birthday Honours list last week for services to the design industry, says the idea that his studio's design was influenced by Atopia's project or by LOCOG is false. "This claim is spurious nonsense. The ludicrous accusation that LOCOG briefed us to work with, develop or implement a pre-existing idea and that we acted in accordance with this briefing is completely and entirely untrue."

The two designs featured on the front page of the Guardian today

The designer added: "Before this week, I – and the entire team I was working with – knew absolutely nothing about this proposal, or the ideas it is claimed it contained. None of us saw or were shown the illustrations published in The Guardian on 19 June 2013 until two days ago."

"Danny [Boyle, artistic director of the opening ceremony] and I evolved the idea for the cauldron over many months, in iterative rounds of discussions and I am appalled at the suggestion that either of us would let ourselves be influenced by any previous work. We were most definitely not steered by LOCOG towards this or any other idea. Any suggestion to the contrary is an affront to our creative integrity."

Danny Boyle has also dismissed the claims, stating: "As Artistic Director of the London 2012 Olympic Ceremony, I asked Thomas Heatherwick to take on the design of the Olympic Cauldron because of the integrity and originality of his ideas."

"I also absolutely and categorically reject any suggestion, whatever its motive, that Thomas or I were influenced by anything other than our obligation to create a ceremonial work of art that celebrated British originality, creativity and engineering," Bo