Construction has commenced on a new £3.8m (US$4.7m, €4.4m) visitor centre for the famous Yorkshire Sculpture Park; one of northern England’s most popular tourist attractions.

The project, located in the city of Wakefield, has been billed by architects Feilden Fowles as “the practice’s most prestigious cultural commission to date.”

The park, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary, welcomes around 500,000 visitors every year. It hosts permanent and temporary sculptures, including work by the likes of Henry Moore, Andy Goldsworthy, David Nash, James Turrell and Ai Weiwei.

Scheduled for completion at the end of March 2018 and opening in the summer, the new centre will enhance the visitor experience at the southern entrance to the park. The low-rise building comprises a 140sq m (1,500sq ft) restaurant, a 125sq m (1,340sq ft) gallery space, an 80sq m (860sq ft) public foyer and a 50sq m (538sq ft) shop.

The building will be embedded in the hillside within a former gritstone quarry. Emerging from the ground. The approach elevation will be constructed of layered, pigmented concrete, creating a sedimentary patina that relates to the sandstone bedrock. A concrete saw-tooth roof veiled in translucent GRP panels will create a soft north light for the display of artworks inside.

A low energy control system using un-fired clay bricks will power the centre, provide a passive humidity buffer and maintain pleasant conditions within the gallery. According to the architects, “this is combined with a highly insulated envelope, natural ventilation, air-source heat pump and a dense, acid moorland green roof, to achieve a robust and passive design approach.”

“The design remains on budget and retains the crafted and bespoke elements that make it unique,” said Feilden Fowles director Fergus Feilden. “Construction will take a year and the visitor centre will open by summer 2018, sitting alongside eminent previous projects at the sculpture park.”

The long-term upgrading of the park’s physical infrastructure began with the opening of Longside Gallery in 2001. A main visitor centre followed in 2002, an Underground Gallery was added in 2005, a learning centre and café was built in 2011, and the site’s chapel was refurbished in 2014.

Once the new centre is complete, the park will boast five indoor galleries totalling 1,465sq m (15,700sq ft).