After yesterdays gray it's now time for something black. Nicknamed The Black Diamond this building is an annex of the Danish Royal Library (should have been named the National Library, I sincerely doubt that the Queen use this one as her private library). When the Royal Library began to run out of space in the mid 1990's this building was designed as an annex to the main building from 1906. It stood ready in 1999 and was a cube of black marble and glass with a view to the harbour with three bridges to connect it to the old building. The building houses a concert hall and a café beside the library, and is used for exhibitions as well.
The Royal Library need this extra space and the four other locations to store everything published in Denmark since the 17th Century and much from before that. It's actually the law in Denmark, that when you print a book, a magazine or a newspaper, a copy should be sent to this library. Today even web pages in Danish are stored. A total of 725.000 books do take up some space. And this is not just a closed library for the selected few; anyone over the age of 18 can get a library card, but of course access is restricted for the oldest books and prints.
The old main building This free access has its drawbacks, as a number of the rare books have been stolen over time and sold to collectors. The biggest of these thefts involved 1.600 books with a value of $50 million that disappeared between 1968 and 1978. The theft was solved in 2003 after the thief, a department head at the library, died and his family tried to sell off the remaining books. About 1.500 of the books was recovered and the family was sentenced to 18 months to 3 years of prison.
Both wonderful buildings, each one in its own way. I think the Black Diamond architect kept well in mind the 'brilliant' lesson of the François Mitterrand Library where they stored books in glass towers exposed to the sun (and soon covered in cardboard).
ReplyDeleteBy the way, your first photo could have figured well in your past series about reflections.
What a fascinating post! I'm with Asta. Well, sort of. I like the old building much better. Nothing wrong with the black diamond, it's just a big square of glass. Big deal!
ReplyDeleteCan't imagine how the library will ever be able to keep up with the vast amounts of material being produced every day. They'll need to build dozens of "black diamonds" and even that won't do it!
Nice shots, Chris. And congratulations on your award. It's an impressive award and you deserve it!
Hmmmmm... I like the stark contrast (and irony) of the old and new buildings. Beautiful in very different ways :)
ReplyDeleteI love the black diamond....looks like polished volcanic stone...and of course, who wouldn't love the old royal library? Terrific, once again! ~Janine
ReplyDeletethe top shot is particularly resourceful. well done!
ReplyDelete@Vogon: I think they have the heat problem squared out unlike some other new buildings in Copenhagen. Actually many of the new buildings also have cold problems in winter. In one building, DR's new HQ, blankets have been issued to the employees during winter!
ReplyDelete@Jacob: I know it's an on-going struggle to keep up, but what's worse is that they have to catalogue it too AND digitize all the old stuff at the same time. And they're understaffed! So they're allways way behind. As to storage, I think they rent warehouses so if you want something you'll have to order it in advance.
@Janine: The stones are granite from Zimbabwe called Absolute Black and cut and polished in Italy. The blocks weigh 75 kg each so they are not exactly pebbles.
@Asta: I do like the old building too, but I think they either had to make an annex at this site or move altogether to a new and bigger location. In this way at least the old building keep its function as a library. But yes, it's allways difficult to built something new next to a great old building like this. With the road seperating the two buildings I think this solution works.