The creative ambitions of a pragmatic and efficient terminal design to be built in less than nine months relied upon its artwork commissions. The architects assumed a 1% for the artworks which alas was marginalized by the decision-makers, in this case, the construction company. The cultural nuances of the Prayagraj could only be symbolically referenced within the building.

Julien Segard, a French artist working in India for almost a decade at the time of the design of the airport terminal, designed a series of sculptures across the terminal and the surrounding landscape. These installations would serve as 'fossils'--an artifact from the past that one perceives in the future.

Segard employed elements used in a river as an allegory for the flow of time. A canoe, for example, was cut and reassembled with heterogenous materials, in a way showing the various stages of 'fossilization'.

Makara-sketch — The Makara, a mythological aquatic-creature known to have inhabited the waters of the confluence in Prayagraj in Hindu culture, is generally depicted as part-terrestrial, part-aquatic and part-winged. The Makara has taken many forms throughout Asia.

The Makara would be a massive cane sculpture inspired by the shape of the mythical creature running around the terminal, appearing and disappearing through the waves of the false ceiling. It would form part of the orientation strategy of the building, leading passengers through the check-in till the gate, for e.g., highlighting the continuity of the space. The sculpture created in collaboration with local cane craftsmen would be lit from the inside in the evening to become a massive lighting device for the terminal building.

Related Project: Allahabad Airport

Artist Julien Segard's initial conceptual work to enliven an Airport Terminal