The Black Diamond, The Royal Library

Photo: Cees van Rouden.

The Black Diamond is the newest addition to the Royal Library on the waterfront, completed in 1999 and designed by architects Schmid, Hammer and Lassen. The black granit exterior is from Zimbabwe, cut and polished in Italy. Each stone slab weighs 75 kilos.

The Queen's Hall

Apart from library purposes The Black Diamond offers exhibitions, a café, restaurant and book shop as well as a concert hall, The Queen's Hall, with seating for up to 600 people. It is primarily intended for chamber music, but also various forms of rhythmic music, for example jazz.

Variable acoustics

The concert hall is equipped with a variable acoustic system that adapts to the specific kind of music. Thereby the sound is adjustable to greater sonorousness, with a longer reveberation for classical music and a shorter reveberation for rhythmic music.