The Centre Pompidou has unveiled its vast new conservation and storage site in Massy, ahead of its inauguration in March. Centre Pompidou Francilien – fabrique de l'art spans 30,000 square metres over three storeys and will also host exhibitions and residencies, after three free preview weekends this month. The building gives the institution a single home for a collection dispersed across eight rented spaces.

That collection numbers some 150,000 Modern and contemporary works, more than any other institution in Europe and second globally only to New York's Museum of Modern Art. Over the next two years, 645 trucks will move the works to Massy, where each piece will be examined, treated and decontaminated if necessary before entering one of 20 storage areas. Large sculptures will sit on the ground floor and lighter works above, and the site will also dispatch the roughly 6,000 works the Pompidou loans each year. The timing matters: the Pompidou's central Paris building is closed for renovation until 2030.

The architect Philippe Chiambaretta and his agency PCA-STREAM gave the public side a Douglas fir facade overlooking a lake and park, with an external escalator nodding to the famous one at the Pompidou itself. The rear, next to a rugby pitch, is clad in a double layer of concrete to hold the collection like a safe. The first floor holds space for two shows a year, a conference room, workshops and a residency studio; the inaugural exhibition, titled 150,000!, will trace the collection's history and the conservation questions it raises.

The project cost €105 million, with €42 million from local authorities and the remainder financed by the French state and the Pompidou through a loan arrangement with Vinci Construction; the town of Massy donated the site, a former football pitch. Admission will be €10, or €6 reduced, with exhibitions free for under-26s and jobseekers, and the centre will work with Paris-Saclay university teams on climate questions around restoration. Director Alexia Fabre describes bringing the restoration, framing and conservation teams under one roof as a revolution for the institution's expertise. The preview weekends are set to continue despite Saturday's planned protests in Paris.