Design team: Nowadays, Raduga Design
Engineering team: Macrofabrika
Photo: Ilya Ivanov
This permanent digital exposition running throughout the entire Gagarin International Airport in the Russian city of Saratov, pays homage to the first human in space — Yuri Gagarin — who landed in the city after the very first space flight on April 12, 1961.
Through the means of design and new media we strove to transform the airport into a spaceport and give passengers the opportunity to experience imaginary travel through time and space. It was essential to embed the theme of space travel into the interior, establishing at least one intervention in each of the airport’s zones and enabling the visitor to sense traces of the cosmic theme everywhere.
Demonstrating the aesthetics of the 1960s through new media presented us with a challenge, yet our multimedia exhibits managed to retain a balance between new technologies, the airport’s architecture, and sixties style.
We developed bespoke guidelines for the whole exposition to demonstrate the boundless expanse of space. The contrast of scale was our primary design technique alongside the use of black backgrounds and free space between objects, placing the viewer in the position of an astronaut and showing his point of view. These features were applied across the multimedia content, the exhibit interfaces and the exposition.
We intended to show the minute stature of man in comparison to the vastness of the universe. In the registration area the visitor is confronted by a giant 30-meter-long media screen where interstellar journey discloses distant galaxies and nebulae. The screen’s abstract, animated content depicts the slow meditative movement of celestial bodies, explores the nuances of light and scales, and presents us with a human figure in space – both lonely dreamer and a fearless explorer.
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