The 225,000 sq ft space, sheltered by a soaring glass roof, houses a vast exhibition space, a cinema, a concert hall, workshops for artists with hi-tech equipment, a library, state-of-the-art recording studios and more.

The building is partly powered by solar panels on the roof and even has a system to collect and purify rainwater for re-use, while the iconic smokestacks have been transformed into conduits for ventilation.

Mr Mikhelson has not revealed the price tag for the centre but projects on such a grand scale by Mr Piano’s agency typically come to hundreds of million pounds.

All public exhibitions and activities will also be free of charge.

For the next three months, GES-2 has given free reign to Iceland’s Ragnar Kjartansson, one of the world’s most sought-after contemporary artists. He has produced two projects including a “living sculpture”, as part of which him and his team will re-shoot in front of a live audience 98 episodes of “Santa Barbara”, the first American soap opera to have been screened in post-Soviet Russia.