Black Diamond (library)
Encyclopedia
The Black Diamond is a modern waterfront extension to the Royal Danish Library's old building on Slotsholmen
in central Copenhagen
, Denmark
. Its quasi-official nickname is a reference to its polished black granite cladding and irregular angles. Designed by Danish architects Schmidt Hammer Lassen
, the Black Diamond was completed in 1999 as the first in a series of large-scale cultural buildings along Copenhagen's waterfront.
Apart from its function as a library, the building houses a number of other public facilities and activities, most of which are located around the central, toplit atrium which cuts into the building with a huge glazed front facing the harbour. The facilities include a 600-seat auditorium, the Queen's Hall, used for concerts—mainly chamber music
and jazz—literary events, theatrical performances and conferences. There are also exhibition spaces, a bookshop, a restaurant, a café and a roof terrace. Two museums are based in the Black Diamond, the National Museum of Photography and a small museum dedicated to cartoon art.
launched an international architecture competition for the design of an extension to the Royal Library on Slotsholmen. The competition attracted 178 Danish and international architectural firms and ultimately Schmidt Hammer Lassen
was chosen as the winner in 1993.
Construction started in 1995. The cost of the building was DKK
465,000,000. The Ministry of Cultural Affairs was the builders and Moe and Brødsgaard A/S the consulting engineers.
The Black Diamond was inaugurated on 7 September 1999 and opened to the public on 15 September 1999. The Minister of Cultural Affairs at the time, Jytte Hilden, named it the Black Diamond.
The building is clad in black granite of a type known as Absolute Black, which was mined in Zimbabwe
and then cut and polished in Italy. The black cladding amounts to 2,500 square metres and each stone weighs 75 kg.
A broad, glazed "crevasse" cleaves the facade into two, letting natural light into the central atrium inside the building. A glazed band also runs along the building's ground floor in its full height to allow for panoramic views of the waterfront from the inside while, at the same time, aiming to give the Diamond a floating appearance when seen from the water.
The Black Diamond is separated from the old building, known as the Holm Building, by the busy thoroughfare Christians Brygge which runs along the waterfront. Several skyway
s connect the two buildings.
creates a bright and organic central space in the library. It is toplit and bounded by wavy balconies. From the atrium a travelator leads up to the C level which holds the main library facilities.
and Islands Brygge
across the harbour.
The Royal Library on Slotsholmen is not a public library where it is possible to locate and pick the books from open shelves and then borrow them for use outside the library. On the contrary, the books have to be ordered either through online or by filling out a requisition form in the catalogue room. The books can then be collected the next day.
The reading rooms on level C to F all face the atrium which provides them with natural light. The reading rooms each consist of double-height rooms with a projecting mezzanine floor
.
The purposes of Reading Room West
is to make it possible for users to study materials from the library’s collection which are restricted to the premises, and to make a large reference collection available for them. There are 160 study seats in the reading room and it is possible to obtain a permanent seat for a specific amount of time on application. The reference collection comprises a total of 65,000 volumes distributed over two floors. The emphasis of the collection is on the humanities and theology but all the library's subject fields are covered. The room has a specially secured area where protected material may be studied. It is possible to apply for a permanent study seat for a prescribed period.
The Reading Room East has 130 study seats and its primary purpose is to give access to a large number of newspapers and periodicals and, at the same time, to provide a large number of study seats for other purposes. The preceding three years of publications of 4,000—3200 foreign and 800 Danish—periodicals are kept alphabetically along the shelves. There are 70,000 microfilm spools of both Danish and foreign newspapers. It is not possible to study restricted materials in this reading room. The target group is students and others, who require knowledge on a high level.
The two remaining reading rooms located in the Black Diamond are those of the Centre for Maps, Prints and Photographs and the Centre for Music and Theatre.
—rsåecoally chamber music
—but also jazz
and other forms of rythmical music is played there.
The Library has its own resident chamber music ensemble
known as the Diamond Ensemble which is frequently joined by international guest musicians. The repertoire includes "exhibition concerts" of musical works from the Royal Library's music archives which are the largest in the Nordic Countries.
Other concerts have been with Trio con Brio
and Niels Lan Doky
.
, Martin Walser
, Günter Wallraff
, Ingo Schulze
, Jonathan Safran Foer
, Lars Saabye Christensen
, Ben Okri
, Juli Zeh
, Günter Grass
, Salman Rushdie, Siegfried Lenz
, Hans Magnus Enzensberger
, Per Olov Enquist
, Kristín Marja Baldursdóttir
, Einar Már Guðmundsson
, Julia Franck
and Alaa Al Aswany
.
has created a 210 square metre titleless fresco at the entrance to the lending section and reading rooms at level C. The painting is one of the largest ceiling decorations in the Nordic countries and it took Per Kirkeby more than a year to complete. Executed in oils, the colourful and organic painting creates a striking contrast to the minimalist surroundings and the adjacent cleavage in glass and steel.
as a new artistic decoration. It consists of an electroacoustic
composition, around three minutes long, for every week of the year. Every day at 1 pm the composition is broadcast in the atrium via a permanent installation based on a computerized 12-channel loudspeaker system, in which every loudspeaker can be programmed individually. Four loudspeakers are installed in the ceiling of each of the three balcony levels.
With each of the 52 compositions inspired by one of the library's treasures, either a manuscript, a photo, a book, or a piece of music, it is intended as a tribute to and promotion of the library's collections and at the same time as an opportunity for the users to look up from their books and take a break.
Slotsholmen
Slotsholmen is an island in the harbour of Copenhagen, Denmark, and part of Copenhagen Inner City. Bishop Absalon constructed the city's first castle on the island in 1166-67 at the site where Christiansborg Palace, the seat of the Danish Parliament lies today...
in central Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
. Its quasi-official nickname is a reference to its polished black granite cladding and irregular angles. Designed by Danish architects Schmidt Hammer Lassen
Schmidt hammer lassen
Schmidt hammer lassen architects is an international architectural practice founded in 1986 in Aarhus, Denmark. It currently has four offices in Aarhus, Copenhagen, Oslo and London....
, the Black Diamond was completed in 1999 as the first in a series of large-scale cultural buildings along Copenhagen's waterfront.
Apart from its function as a library, the building houses a number of other public facilities and activities, most of which are located around the central, toplit atrium which cuts into the building with a huge glazed front facing the harbour. The facilities include a 600-seat auditorium, the Queen's Hall, used for concerts—mainly chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
and jazz—literary events, theatrical performances and conferences. There are also exhibition spaces, a bookshop, a restaurant, a café and a roof terrace. Two museums are based in the Black Diamond, the National Museum of Photography and a small museum dedicated to cartoon art.
History
In the early 1990s, the Danish Ministry of Cultural AffairsMinistry of Culture of Denmark
The Ministry of Culture of Denmark is a department of the Danish Government, with responsibility for culture, sport and media.-History:...
launched an international architecture competition for the design of an extension to the Royal Library on Slotsholmen. The competition attracted 178 Danish and international architectural firms and ultimately Schmidt Hammer Lassen
Schmidt hammer lassen
Schmidt hammer lassen architects is an international architectural practice founded in 1986 in Aarhus, Denmark. It currently has four offices in Aarhus, Copenhagen, Oslo and London....
was chosen as the winner in 1993.
Construction started in 1995. The cost of the building was DKK
Danish krone
The krone is the official currency of the Kingdom of Denmark consisting of Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. It is subdivided into 100 øre...
465,000,000. The Ministry of Cultural Affairs was the builders
The Black Diamond was inaugurated on 7 September 1999 and opened to the public on 15 September 1999. The Minister of Cultural Affairs at the time, Jytte Hilden, named it the Black Diamond.
Architecture
The basic shape of the Black Diamond is a box which leans to the left as seen from the harbour as well as towards the water. At the same time it expands slightly from the bottom and up and from north to south, giving it a distorted, prismatic shape.The building is clad in black granite of a type known as Absolute Black, which was mined in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
and then cut and polished in Italy. The black cladding amounts to 2,500 square metres and each stone weighs 75 kg.
A broad, glazed "crevasse" cleaves the facade into two, letting natural light into the central atrium inside the building. A glazed band also runs along the building's ground floor in its full height to allow for panoramic views of the waterfront from the inside while, at the same time, aiming to give the Diamond a floating appearance when seen from the water.
The Black Diamond is separated from the old building, known as the Holm Building, by the busy thoroughfare Christians Brygge which runs along the waterfront. Several skyway
Skyway
In an urban setting, a skyway, catwalk, sky bridge, or skywalk is a type of pedway consisting of an enclosed or covered bridge between two buildings. This protects pedestrians from the weather. These skyways are usually owned by businesses, and are therefore not public spaces...
s connect the two buildings.
Atrium
In contrast to the stringent and dark exterior the atriumAtrium (architecture)
In modern architecture, an atrium is a large open space, often several stories high and having a glazed roof and/or large windows, often situated within a larger multistory building and often located immediately beyond the main entrance doors...
creates a bright and organic central space in the library. It is toplit and bounded by wavy balconies. From the atrium a travelator leads up to the C level which holds the main library facilities.
The Link
The Link is a connecting walkway running from the foyer of the old main building of the library through a skywalk above Christians Brygge and the atrium along a gangway to the glazed facade with sweeping views of ChristianshavnChristianshavn
Christianshavn is an artificial island neighbourhood located in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was founded in the early 17th century by Christian IV as part of his extension of the fortifications of Copenhagen. Originally it was laid out as an independent privileged merchant's town with inspiration from...
and Islands Brygge
Islands Brygge
Islands Brygge is a harbourfront area in central Copenhagen, Denmark, located on the north-western coast of Amager. The neighbourhood is noted for its waterfront park Havneparken, which is one of the most popular areas along the Copenhagen harbourfront and the location of one of the Copenhagen...
across the harbour.
Library facilities
The main floor of the library is the C level which is reached from the ground floor along a travelator. With the construction of the Black Diamond, the Royal Library on Slotsholmen has gained 21,500 square meters and now has six reading rooms compared to previously one and 474 reading and study seats compared to 96 prior to the extension. The Information Room holds 60 seats compared to the previous 46.The Lending Bridge
The circulation desk is located in the 18-metre-wide main skyway which connects the old and the new building above Christians Brygge.The Royal Library on Slotsholmen is not a public library where it is possible to locate and pick the books from open shelves and then borrow them for use outside the library. On the contrary, the books have to be ordered either through online or by filling out a requisition form in the catalogue room. The books can then be collected the next day.
Reading rooms
Mezzanine (architecture)
In architecture, a mezzanine or entresol is an intermediate floor between main floors of a building, and therefore typically not counted among the overall floors of a building. Often, a mezzanine is low-ceilinged and projects in the form of a balcony. The term is also used for the lowest balcony in...
.
The purposes of Reading Room West
Reading Room West
Reading Room West or The Research Reading Room at The Royal Danish Library is a part of The Danish National Library and is located in Black Diamond, the Royal Library's modern extension on Slotsholmen in Copenhagen...
is to make it possible for users to study materials from the library’s collection which are restricted to the premises, and to make a large reference collection available for them. There are 160 study seats in the reading room and it is possible to obtain a permanent seat for a specific amount of time on application. The reference collection comprises a total of 65,000 volumes distributed over two floors. The emphasis of the collection is on the humanities and theology but all the library's subject fields are covered. The room has a specially secured area where protected material may be studied. It is possible to apply for a permanent study seat for a prescribed period.
The Reading Room East has 130 study seats and its primary purpose is to give access to a large number of newspapers and periodicals and, at the same time, to provide a large number of study seats for other purposes. The preceding three years of publications of 4,000—3200 foreign and 800 Danish—periodicals are kept alphabetically along the shelves. There are 70,000 microfilm spools of both Danish and foreign newspapers. It is not possible to study restricted materials in this reading room. The target group is students and others, who require knowledge on a high level.
The two remaining reading rooms located in the Black Diamond are those of the Centre for Maps, Prints and Photographs and the Centre for Music and Theatre.
Queen's Hall
The Queen's Hall is an auditorium seating up to 600 people. It is used for a variety of purposes, including concerts, conferences, film, ballet and theatre. The hall is equipped with a variable acoustic system which adapts to the specific type of music. Thereby the sound is adjustable to greater sonorousness, with longer reveberation for classical music and shorter reveberation for rhythmic music.Concerts
The Queen Hall is primarily intended as a venue for classicalClassical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
—rsåecoally chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
—but also jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and other forms of rythmical music is played there.
The Library has its own resident chamber music ensemble
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
known as the Diamond Ensemble which is frequently joined by international guest musicians. The repertoire includes "exhibition concerts" of musical works from the Royal Library's music archives which are the largest in the Nordic Countries.
Other concerts have been with Trio con Brio
Trio con Brio Copenhagen
Trio con Brio Copenhagen is an award-winning piano trio based in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was formed in 1999 and consists of the Danish pianist Jens Elvekjaer and the two Korean sisters Soo-Jin Hong and Soo-Kyung Hong....
and Niels Lan Doky
Niels Lan Doky
Niels Lan Doky is a Danish jazz pianist and record producer.-Biography:He was born in Copenhagen of a Danish mother and Vietnamese father. His father worked as a doctor, but was also a classically trained guitarist so guitar was Niels's first instrument...
.
International Authors' Stage
The Queen's Hall is also used for a programme of lectures by leading International writers and intellectuals. Upcoming or previous speakers include Uwe TellkampUwe Tellkamp
Uwe Tellkamp is a German writer and physician. He practised medicine until 2004. Before the fall of communism, he was enlisted in the National People's Army as a tank commander and imprisoned when he refused to break up a demonstration in October 1989...
, Martin Walser
Martin Walser
At first the speech did not cause a great stir. Indeed, the audience present in Church of St. Paul received the speech with applause, though Walser's critic Ignatz Bubis did not applaud, as confirmed by television footage of the event...
, Günter Wallraff
Günter Wallraff
Günter Wallraff is a famous German writer and undercover journalist.-Research methods:Wallraff came to prominence thanks to his striking journalistic research methods and several major books on lower class working conditions and tabloid journalism...
, Ingo Schulze
Ingo Schulze
Ingo Schulze is a German writer born in Dresden in former East Germany. He studied classical philology at the University of Jena for five years, and, until the German reunification, was an assistant director at the State Theatre in Altenburg 45 km south of Leipzig for two years...
, Jonathan Safran Foer
Jonathan Safran Foer
Jonathan Safran Foer is an American author best known for his novels Everything Is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close...
, Lars Saabye Christensen
Lars Saabye Christensen
Lars Saabye Christensen, born 21 September 1953 in Oslo, is a Norwegian author.Saabye Christensen was raised in the Skillebekk neighbourhood of Oslo, but lived for many years in Sortland in northern Norway; both places play a major role in his work...
, Ben Okri
Ben Okri
Ben Okri OBE FRSL is a Nigerian poet and novelist. Okri has become the leading figure of his generation of Nigerian writers who have largely abandoned the social and historical themes of Chinua Achebe, and brought together modernist narrative strategies and Nigerian oral and literary...
, Juli Zeh
Juli Zeh
Juli Zeh is a German novelist.Her first book was Adler und Engel , which won the 2002 Deutscher Bücherpreis for best debut novel. She traveled through Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2001, which became the basis for the book Die Stille ist ein Geräusch...
, Günter Grass
Günter Grass
Günter Wilhelm Grass is a Nobel Prize-winning German author, poet, playwright, sculptor and artist.He was born in the Free City of Danzig...
, Salman Rushdie, Siegfried Lenz
Siegfried Lenz
Siegfried Lenz is a German writer, who has written novels and produced several collections of short stories, essays, and plays for radio and the theatre. He was awarded the Goethe Prize in Frankfurt-am-Main on the 250th Anniversary of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's birth...
, Hans Magnus Enzensberger
Hans Magnus Enzensberger
Hans Magnus Enzensberger , is a German author, poet, translator, and editor. He has also written under the pseudonym Andreas Thalmayr. He lives in Munich.- Life :...
, Per Olov Enquist
Per Olov Enquist
Per Olov Enquist, better known as P. O. Enquist, is a Swedish author. He has worked as a journalist, playwright and novelist...
, Kristín Marja Baldursdóttir
Kristín Marja Baldursdóttir
Kristín Marja Baldursdóttir is an Icelandic writer born on January 21, 1949 in Hafnarfjörður. She received her degree in 1991 from the University of Iceland in the fields of German and Icelandic. Her first novel Mávahlátur became a play and film...
, Einar Már Guðmundsson
Einar Már Guðmundsson
Einar Már Guðmundsson is an Icelandic author of novels, short stories, and poetry. His books have been translated into several languages.- Background :...
, Julia Franck
Julia Franck
Julia Franck is a German writer.In 1978 Julia Franck and her family moved to West Berlin and later to Schleswig-Holstein. She studied German Literature and American Studies at the Free University of Berlin and spent some time in the United States, Mexico and Guatemala...
and Alaa Al Aswany
Alaa Al Aswany
Alaa al-Aswany is an Egyptian writer, and a founding member of the political movement Kefaya.-Biography:Alaa Al Aswany studied to be a dentist, first in Egypt, and then later Chicago....
.
Exhibitions
The Black Diamond has two main exhibition areas. The larger of the two is the Peristyle (Danish: Søjlehallen) which covers 600 square metres and is located at level K. It hosts a variety of cultural and historical exhibitions, including those held by the National Museum of Photography. The other, the Montana Hall, was created in 2009 and serves as the treasury of the library. It is here that the rarest pieces from the national heritage are exhibited.National Museum of Cartoon Art
The Danish Museum of Cartoon Art is located on level B with the so-called Gallery Corridor serving as the museum's exhibition space. Larger exhibitions—of which there generally is one a year—are held in the exhibition area at level K. The museum figures under the Centre for Maps, Prints and Photographs. The first major exhibition consisted of drawings by the Danish artist Bo Bojesen.Kirkeby fresco
The Danish artist Per KirkebyPer Kirkeby
Per Kirkeby is a Danish painter, poet, filmmaker and sculptor.-Biography:1962 Studies at the Experimental Art School in Copenhagen; works in the School on painting, graphic arts, 8 millimeter films and performance pieces...
has created a 210 square metre titleless fresco at the entrance to the lending section and reading rooms at level C. The painting is one of the largest ceiling decorations in the Nordic countries and it took Per Kirkeby more than a year to complete. Executed in oils, the colourful and organic painting creates a striking contrast to the minimalist surroundings and the adjacent cleavage in glass and steel.
Katalog sound ornament – Music at One
Katalog (English: Catalogue) is a music piece composed specially for the Black Diamond by Danish composer FuzzyFuzzy (composer)
Jens Vilhelm Pedersen, also known as Fuzzy is a Danish composer and musician. A student of Per Nørgård, Karlheinz Stockhausen, György Ligeti and Jan Bark...
as a new artistic decoration. It consists of an electroacoustic
Electroacoustic music
Electroacoustic music originated in Western art music during its modern era following the incorporation of electric sound production into compositional practice. The initial developments in electroacoustic music composition during the mid-20th century are associated with the activities of composers...
composition, around three minutes long, for every week of the year. Every day at 1 pm the composition is broadcast in the atrium via a permanent installation based on a computerized 12-channel loudspeaker system, in which every loudspeaker can be programmed individually. Four loudspeakers are installed in the ceiling of each of the three balcony levels.
With each of the 52 compositions inspired by one of the library's treasures, either a manuscript, a photo, a book, or a piece of music, it is intended as a tribute to and promotion of the library's collections and at the same time as an opportunity for the users to look up from their books and take a break.
See also
- Architecture of DenmarkArchitecture of DenmarkThe architecture of Denmark has its origins in the Viking period, richly revealed by archaeological finds. It became firmly established in the Middle Ages when first Romanesque, then Gothic churches and cathedrals sprang up throughout the country...
- List of concert halls in Copenhagen