Black Diamond (library)

Last updated
Black Diamond
The Black Diamond, Copenhagen 2017-08-16.jpg
The Black Diamond
Black Diamond (library)
General information
Type National library
Architectural style Neomodern [1]
Location Slotsholmen
Coordinates 55°40′24″N12°34′58″E / 55.67333°N 12.58278°E / 55.67333; 12.58278
Construction started1995
Completed1999
Technical details
Structural system Reinforced concrete
Floor count7
Floor area20,733 square metres (223,170 sq ft)
Design and construction
Architect(s) Schmidt Hammer Lassen

The Black Diamond (Danish: Den Sorte Diamant) 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.

Contents

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 gift shop, a café and a garden. The exhibitions are based on or inspired by the library collections and range from historical topics through contemporary photography to artist collaborations such as Marina Abramović and Nick Cave.

History

In the early 1990s, the Danish Ministry of Cultural Affairs 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. [2]

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.

Architecture

Connection to the old building Den Sorte Diamant 7.jpg
Connection to the old building

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 and then cut and polished in Italy. The black cladding amounts to 2,500 square metres and each stone weighs 75 kg. [3]

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 skyways connect the two buildings.

View over the harbour from the atrium Black Diamond - atrium.jpg
View over the harbour from the atrium

Atrium

In contrast to the stringent and dark exterior the atrium 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 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 Christianshavn and Islands Brygge 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. [2]

Kirkeby-broen

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

Looking into Reading Room West Black Diamond - atrium side.jpg
Looking into Reading Room West

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.

Queen's Hall

The Dronningesalen auditorium Dronningesalen (Den Sorte Diamant).jpg
The Dronningesalen auditorium

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 reverberation for classical music and shorter reverberation for rhythmic music.

Concerts

The Queen Hall is primarily intended as a venue for classical, particularly chamber music, but also jazz and other forms of rhythmical music is played there. [4]

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. [5]

Other concerts have been with Trio con Brio and Niels Lan Doky.

International Authors' Stage

The Queen's Hall is also used for a programme of lectures by leading International writers and intellectuals, the program is curated and hosted by Lise Bach Hansen. Upcoming or previous speakers include Uwe Tellkamp, 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, Slavoj Žižek, Åsne Seierstad, Kofi Annan, Caitlin Moran, Siri Hustvedt , Paul Auster, and Alaa Al Aswany. [6]


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. [7]

One of the most ambition exhibitions, at the library was "Stranger Than Kindness" created in cooperation between Nick Cave and local curator Christina Back.

Artwork

Kirkeby fresco

Per Kirkeby's nameless fresco Black Diamond - Per Kirkeby fresco.jpg
Per Kirkeby's nameless fresco

The Danish artist Per Kirkeby 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 Fuzzy 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. [8]

See also

The Black Diamond seen from the harbour Christians Brygge with the Black Diamond.jpg
The Black Diamond seen from the harbour

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Copenhagen</span> Capital and most populous city of Denmark

Copenhagen is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the Øresund strait. The Øresund Bridge connects the two cities by rail and road.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Library, Denmark</span> National library of Denmark

The Royal Library in Copenhagen is the national library of Denmark and the academic library of the University of Copenhagen. It is among the largest libraries in the world and the largest in the Nordic countries. In 2017, it merged with the State and University Library in Aarhus to form a combined national library. The combined library organisation is known as the Royal Danish Library.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christiansborg Palace</span> Palace in Copenhagen, seat of the Danish Parliament

Christiansborg Palace is a palace and government building on the islet of Slotsholmen in central Copenhagen, Denmark. It is the seat of the Danish Parliament, the Danish Prime Minister's Office, and the Supreme Court of Denmark. Also, several parts of the palace are used by the Danish monarch, including the Royal Reception Rooms, the Palace Chapel and the Royal Stables.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slotsholmen</span> Island in the harbour of Copenhagen, Denmark

Slotsholmen is an island in the harbour of Copenhagen, Denmark, and part of Copenhagen Inner City. The name is taken from the successive castles and palaces located on the island since Bishop Absalon constructed the city's first castle on the island in 1167 at the site where Christiansborg Palace lies today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islands Brygge</span> District of Copenhagen

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 Harbour Baths.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Copenhagen Municipality</span> Municipality in Hovedstaden, Denmark

Copenhagen Municipality, also known in English as the Municipality of Copenhagen, located in the Capital Region of Denmark, is the largest of the four municipalities that constitute the City of Copenhagen, the other three being Dragør, Frederiksberg, and Tårnby. The Municipality of Copenhagen constitutes the historical city centre and the majority of its landmarks. It is the most populous in the country with a population of 659,350 inhabitants, and covers 86.4 square kilometres (33.4 sq mi) in area,. Copenhagen Municipality is located at the Zealand and Amager islands and totally surrounds Frederiksberg Municipality on all sides. The strait of Øresund lies to the east. The city of Copenhagen has grown far beyond the municipal boundaries from 1901, when Frederiksberg Municipality was made an enclave within Copenhagen Municipality. Frederiksberg has the largest population density of the municipalities of Denmark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danish National Archives</span>

The Danish National Archives is the national archive system of Denmark. Its primary purpose is to collect, preserve and archive historically valuable records from central authorities, such as ministries, agencies and national organisations and make them available to the public. The archive is part of the Ministry of Culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reading Room West</span>

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. The history of the reading room has its roots in the foundation of The Royal Library by King Frederik III and it has been relocated several times since then.

Julien De Smedt is the founder and director of JDS Architects based in Brussels, Copenhagen, Belo Horizonte and Shanghai. Projects include the VM Housing Complex, the Mountain Dwellings, the Maritime Youth House and the Holmenkollen Ski Jump.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Havneparken</span>

Havneparken is a public park located directly on the waterfront in the district of Islands Brygge in central Copenhagen, Denmark. It is one of the most lively and popular places along the Copenhagen harbourfront. Located in a former dockland area, the park has retained a number of features from the area's industrial past, including disused railway tracks and an abandoned railway car used as an exhibition space, while am old ship hull turned upside-down serves as an idiosyncratic bandstand and pavilion. The park is also the location of the Islands Brygge Cultural Centre and the Islands Brygge Harbour Bath.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Søren Kierkegaards Plads</span> Public square in Copenhagen

Søren Kierkegaards Plads is a harbourside public square on Slotsholmen in central Copenhagen, Denmark, named after Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. It occupies a strip of waterfront between the Black Diamond, whose main entrance faces the square, and the Frederiksholm Canal. Away from the water, the square is faced by Christian IV's Brewhouse as well as his old arsenal, now housing the Royal Military Museum. The thoroughfare Christians Brygge runs through the square which is connected to the water by "ghats" which also serve as seating for spectators for the occasional performances on a floating stage in the harbour basin.

The National Museum of Photography is located in the Black Diamond, a modern waterfront extension to the Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Library Garden, Copenhagen</span> Garden of the Danish Royal Library in Copenhagen

The Royal Library Garden, often referred to simply as the Library Garden, is a small, somewhat hidden garden between the Royal Library, the Tøjhus Museum, ChristianIV's Supply Depot and Christiansborg Palace on Slotsholmen in central Copenhagen, Denmark. It has a reputation for being one of the most tranquil spots in the city centre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christian IV's Arsenal</span> Building in Copenhagen, Denmark

Christian IV's Arsenal, is a historic building on Slotsholmen in central Copenhagen, Denmark. It was built by Christian IV of Denmark in 1604 as part of a grand scheme for the construction of a new naval harbour. The arsenal, along with several other buildings, surrounded the harbour basin which was connected to the main harbour by a narrow canal. Later, when ships became too large to enter the harbour, the fleet moved to Bremerholm and the decommissioned naval harbour was later filled in.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thorvald Jørgensen</span> Danish architect

Thorvald Jørgensen was a Danish architect, most known for his design of Christiansborg Palace, the seat of the Danish Parliament, after it had been destroyed in a fire. He has also designed a number of churches in Copenhagen. He was Royal Building Inspector from 1911 to 1938.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kalvebod Brygge</span>

Kalvebod Brygge is a waterfront area in the Vesterbro district of Copenhagen, Denmark. The name also refers to a section of the Ring 2 ring road which follows the waterfront from Langebro in the north to the H. C. Ørsted Power Station in the south. The area is dominated by office buildings, Tivoli Conference Center, several hotels and the shopping centre Fisketorvet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theatre Museum in the Court Theatre</span> Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark

The Theatre Museum in the Court Theatre is situated at Christiansborg Palace on Slotsholmen, Copenhagen, Denmark, above the Royal Stables, and is on the first floor of the building. Its collection describes Danish theatre history from the 18th century to the present.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Havneholmen, Copenhagen</span>

Havneholmen is a mixed-use development located on reclaimed land off Kalvebod Brygge in the harbor of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is located just east of the shopping centre Fisketorvet from which it is separated by a narrow canal, although it is annexed to mainland Kalvebod Brygge at its southern end.

Proviantgården or Provianthuset is a historic building on Slotsholmen in Copenhagen, Denmark. The building was originally constructed in the early 1600s as part of a Christian IV's naval harbor project. Its name, Proviantgården, is in reference to its initial role as a provisions depot. Today, the building is used by Folketinget's administration, housing offices for MPs as well as the Copenhagen reading rooms of the National Archives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christians Brygge</span>

Christians Brygge is a waterfront and street in central Copenhagen, Denmark. It runs from the mouth of Slotsholmen Canal in the north to Langebro Bridge in the south where it turns into Kalvebod Brygge. Its northern end, which is located on the small isle of Slotsholmen, is connected to Niels Juels Gade and then Holmens Kanal by Christian IV's Bridge. Christians Brygge The road section is part of Ring 2. The name refers to Christian IV, king of Denmark during the first half of the 17th century, who constructed several buildings at the site, including the Arsenal and Christian IV's Brewhouse as well as nearby Børsen. Other landmarks along the quay include the Royal Danish Library and the mixed-use building BLOX, home to the Danish Architecture Centre.

References

  1. ↑ "The Black Diamond". Danish Architecture Centre. Archived from the original on 2013-12-02. Retrieved 2010-02-08.
  2. 1 2 "Den Sorte Diamant". Royal Danish Library. Retrieved 2010-02-07.
  3. ↑ "The Black Diamond". Geocaching - The Official Global GPS Cache Hunt Site. Retrieved 2010-01-04.
  4. ↑ "The Black Diamond, The Royal Library". Wonderful Copenhagen. Archived from the original on 2011-01-11. Retrieved 2010-02-11.
  5. ↑ "Diamanten er med i spillet". Berlingske. Retrieved 2010-01-04.
  6. ↑ "International Authors' Stage". Royal Danish Library. Archived from the original on 2010-01-16. Retrieved 2010-02-07.
  7. ↑ "Fra støv til guld på Det Kongelige Bibliotek". Royal Library. Archived from the original on 2010-03-12. Retrieved 2010-02-08.
  8. ↑ "KATALOG (Catalogue) by Fuzzy". Royal Danish Library. Retrieved 2010-02-10.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.