Kijiji Innovative Sustainable Solutions (K.I.S.S.) in partnership with SMU’s Sustainability + Development Program (S+DP), the Hunt Institute for Engineering and Humanity (HI), and three universities in Tanzania (MUST, ARDHI and UDSM) launched an architectural competition for the design of the Rulegura Centre back in 2020.

The 2022 K.I.S.S competition involved the designing of Sustainable Library at the Center. The international jury panel from different areas of the world including Europe, America and Africa unanimously selected the top three project placements in the competition where the first winning project came from Mbeya University of Science and Technology (MUST).

The winning innovative design project was designed by the two students namely; Zacharia Bithulo and Jackson Tarimo, fourth year students from the Department of Architecture and Art Design at ‘MUST’. The concept of the library building design embraced local materials with a blend of modern construction methods and techniques. It has maximized passive design techniques to enhance thermal comfort in the building. Also, the design combined indigenous technology with local materials such as local fab clay tiles using clay pots fab technology with addition of sisal fibers which are plenty available in the village. Generally, the concept was to involve the local community in attaining sustainability goal through developing design that use local fabricated materials and low-cost production.

The K.I.S.S CEO Clara Rulegula and Sustainability and Development Program Director at SMU University Arch Prof. Jessie Marshall Zarazaga travelled to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania to attend the award ceremony and commission the trophy to winners at Russian Cultural Center in Dar es Salaam in July 2022. The ceremony was also attended by competition participants and coordinators from the three Universities in Tanzania (MUST, ARU and UDSM).