Purpose / Context - Many developed countries experience late afternoon or evening electricity peaks. In summer peak demand regions, these peaks are most likely the results of residential air conditioning demand. Methodology / Approach - This research is to investigate the air conditioning peak demand reduc-tion potential from a variety of building and operational improvement options in a community centre case. Scenarios of increased thermal mass (rammed earth), more efficient glass sliding door options and control methods are simulated. Results – Building improvement with integrated control performs best at reducing air conditioning peak demand and energy consumption. However, the control method is the most cost effective way of reducing the peak demand. Key Findings / Implications – The integrated design and operation strategy for the community centre would significantly alleviate the peak demand pressure on electricity network infrastructure and energy so as to lower the carbon footprint onto the environment. Originality – This study examined a residential community centre case from both design and opera-tion aspects. The simulation is completed in half hourly intervals under real world tariffs. Keywords - building improvement; thermal mass; operational strategy; air conditioning control; de-mand side management