The Water Wall
Roy Grounds (1905 to 1981) · 1968
Before you see a single painting you meet the Water Wall. The entrance of NGV International on St Kilda Road is a tall sheet of glass down which water flows in a constant, silent curtain, so that the street outside appears wavering and dreamlike and the light inside shifts and ripples. Generations of Melbourne children have pressed their hands against it, and many adults admit they still do. It was part of the original design by the architect Roy Grounds when the gallery opened in 1968, and it has become the building's signature, as recognisable in the city as the bluestone walls and the great arched doorway that frames it.
Look at the way the water moves. It is fed from the top of the glass and spreads into an even film, breaking into ripples and braids as it falls. The bluestone of the surrounding walls, a dark volcanic rock quarried around Melbourne, makes the glass seem lighter and more transparent. The arch above the entrance is a deliberate echo of ancient gateways, and Grounds thought of the whole building as a fortress of art, with a moat, thick walls and the water wall as a portcullis of light. Inside, the rippling shadows fall on the floor of the foyer, especially in the afternoon when the sun is behind the wall.
The Water Wall was switched off for a time during the gallery's renovation by Mario Bellini, completed in 2003, and its return was greeted with real affection. The gallery now offers a step by step activity in which children can pat the wall on the way in, and the Great Hall ceiling on the way out, so that a visit begins and ends with light. It matters because it sets the mood: it says that this is a place where looking is a pleasure. The memorable detail is the sound, or rather the lack of it. The wall makes almost no noise, which is part of its calm.
Did You Know? Touching the Water Wall on the way in is a Melbourne childhood ritual, and the gallery openly encourages it.
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