Tabakalera used to be a tobacco factory, but to celebrate San Sebastián’s role as Capital of European Culture in 2016, it was transformed into a massive new Centre for Contemporary Culture.
It's a huge building and the aim was to create 30,000 m2 of space for exhibitions, cinemas, media archive and even a hotel, with the whole project costing over €50 million.
The purpose of the building changed and so new floors, new interior areas and a totally new glass roof was built as part of the project. The ceilings were made out of lots of different materials, such as old steel beams, as well as hollow slabs, composite slabs and traditional concrete slabs.
Our Hilti MQ System was key in supporting all the necessary technical installations and we supplied more than 14,000 metres of our Hilti MQ channel system. Using our direct fastening technologies, the workers could fasten the channel system directly to steel structures and our Hilti HUS screw anchor was used for fastening in concrete.
After four years of construction, the Tabakalera opened in 2015, well in time for San Sebastián’s year as Capital of European Culture the following year!