About the building The Black Diamond

Royal Danish Library on Søren Kierkegaards Plads, Copenhagen extends across three very different buildings. Facing the waterfront is The Black Diamond (1999), designed by the Danish architectural firm Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, At its centre stands Preben Hansen’s narrow extension (1968), while at the rear is H.J. Holm's historic library building from 1906, connected to the library garden.

Facts about The Black Diamond

• The building is shaped like a sculptural monolith.
• The building’s total area is 20,733 m².
• In all, it contains 450 rooms and 800 doors, all requiring a key, spread across eight floors.
• The façade of The Black Diamond consists of 2,500 m² Absolute Black Granite, mined in Zimbabwe and cut and polished in northern Italy. Each stone weighs 75 kg.

Art for eyes and ears

Both inside and outside The Black Diamond, there are works of art to see and hear. Most spectacular is Per Kirkeby's 210 m² ceiling decoration above the bridge that connects The Black Diamond with the library's older buildings.

If you happen to be in the building at 1 p.m., The Black Diamond's central atrium is filled with sound art for a few minutes, through a specially designed, built-in 12-channel speaker system. The piece, "Sky Mechanics", was composed by Wayne Siegel. The work is generated in real time by a computer programme and can only be heard for 3-4 minutes, it is constantly changing as it is affected by the cycle of the moon. On Saturdays the music plays both at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., and on Sundays at 11 a.m and 3 p.m.

Outdoors you can see Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen's expressive sculpture "Mermaid" with Olafur Eliasson's poetic "Circle Bridge" as a background. If you take a break on the maritime stairs at Søren Kierkegaards Plads, you can ponder the famous Søren Kierkegaard quote that life must be understood backwards, engraved in the woodwork by the artist duo FA + (Ingrid Falk and Gustavo Aguerre).

Discover more works of art as you move around the building.