The Yaa Centre is a new Carnival Arts and Community Centre for Carnival Village and provides a new home for Yaa Asantewaa, the Association of British Calypsonians and Ebony Steel Band. Its facilities include workshops for making costumes and floats for carnival and the tuning of steel pans, a dedicated steel pan rehearsal room, together with offices, arts and IT education rooms, a café and an informal central performance space. The building is located in an enclosed courtyard, surrounded by housing, and combines an original 19thC mews building with new construction. The proximity of the nearby housing has required that the building was designed with a high level of acoustic separation to avoid disturbance to residents. The construction consists of a steel frame with holorib floors and roof. The finishes are robust with power floated concrete floors, exposed steel structure and holorib ceilings and fair faced concrete blockwork. Brickwork to the original building has been cleaned and left exposed. The main elevation to the courtyard is clad in corten steel which reflects the tough aesthetic of the building externally. The building is highly sustainable, incorporating good thermal performance and daylighting, rainwater harvesting and a brown roof.