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.

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.

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.

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.

At the same time it expands slightly from the bottom and up and from north to south, giving it a distorted, prismatic shape.

[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.

In contrast to the stringent and dark exterior the atrium creates a bright and organic central space in the library.

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[1], Paul Auster, and Alaa Al Aswany.

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.

[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.

Executed in oils, the colourful and organic painting creates a striking contrast to the minimalist surroundings and the adjacent cleavage in glass and steel.