Mandala Custom Homes – Climate Change Ready. By Design.
Ever-increasing temperatures mean more frequent wildfires and other severe weather events. Climate change impacts how you cool, heat, and protect your home.
And the choices we make have an impact on the environment and doing what we can to help in the fight against climate change.
Recent years have seen record-breaking temperatures across the country, and, depending on where you live they've been accompanied by wildfire seasons and flooding, at rates largely unprecedented. This summer saw temperatures in parts of British Columbia hit over 46 degrees Celcius where the village of Lytton just seemed to combust and other communities were under evacuation alerts and orders as fires licked, uncontrolled, at their boundaries. In 2017 and 2018, BC's wildfire seasons were on record as our worst. B.C.’s 2017 and 2018 wildfire seasons were the worst on record and in 2019, our national capital experienced two one-in-100 year floods in only three years.
These warmer temperatures that we're experiencing are accompanied by more frequent extreme events and rainfall and have serious implications on how we cool, heat, and protect our homes.
As many of us have already figured out, it's at home first where we feel we can make the smaller, incremental changes to do our part to help minimize the negative impact we have on the environment. The everyday choices we make – participating in a recycling program, composting food waste, and our choice of lightbulbs, for example. But, there are also the bigger picture choices such as the ways we choose to build and renovate our homes. Sustainable building practices that incorporate environmentally conscious approaches to heating, cooling, ventilating, and the building products used during construction.
Mandala Custom Homes – prediction and preparedness
Since our inception, Mandala Custom Homes (MCH) has understood the impact of home-building on the environment. Minimizing environmental impact has been fundamental to our building philosophy and practice from the very first home we built. And, throughout the years, MCH's experience with the various climatic regions has honed our ability to design and engineer our homes for the climate change events that are posing increasing challenges to the world today.
Home is where we retreat to feel safest. Part of feeling safe is the ability to predict what may happen and where so that we can be, and feel, prepared. Prediction has been vital to the MCH design process to help us prepare for the future rather than being in the position of simply reacting.
Mandala Homes, inherently by design addresses the effects of our increasingly extreme weather as it maintains a consistent measure of safety and comfort. Despite extreme temperatures, high winds, heavy rains, severe snow conditions, seismic activity, and wildfires, we design and create an environment that makes a home not only safe but sustainable, beautiful, and immensely comfortable.
Let's take a look at how MCH designs and builds homes that withstand the impacts of climate change:
Temperature extremes
MCH began building ENERGY STAR certified homes in Minnesota in 2003. What began with appliances and HVAC, evolved into our current Eco Premium design – an airtight envelope that wraps the home in a blanket of insulation that creates a very comfortable energy-efficient home. It's a building system that prevents hot and cold from entering through the framing and limits air exchanges to as low as .52 air exchanges per hour.
We can also provide a passive solar design that allows the sun to heat the home in the colder months and shades the sun from entering through the windows in the summer.
Wildfires
With smoke pervading much of the air throughout the province, we all felt the effects of wildfires again this summer. Some much more profoundly than others, of course. While there is never a 100 per cent guarantee when it comes to wildfire, through extensive design and building in California where there is a strict Wildfire Code for construction, MCH has learned and incorporated the best practices for a fire-resistant home.
Two vital components we took from that experience is 1. ensure the shell has a Class A Fire rating; and 2. Install soffit venting on the roof. From a recent Harvard University study, we are also researching how to integrate roof sprinkler systems to create a moisture bubble that prevents the fire from even reaching the building.
Heavy rains
To mitigate the impact of excessive rainfall, Mandala has three levels of moisture protection:
- Our standard 30” roof overhang limits rain from reaching the windows, siding or the foundation.
- In case of heavy windblown rain, we have incorporated a built-in rain screen that vents moisture off the exterior insulation and keeps both sides of the siding dry.
- For extra safety, we include a continuous moisture plane that ensures that the home is always dry.
Heavy snow loads
When it comes to managing heavy snow, it's all about the engineering of the roof system. All MCH homes have a lifetime engineer’s warrantee that the structure will hold the potential amount of snow typical to the region in which we are building.
Our low-pitched roof captures the accumulated snow which then becomes part of the home's thermal barrier. Our 30” roof overhang prevents snow from coming up against the foundation, creating a dry wall and foundation, increasing the life of the home.
High winds
Round homes are one of the safest structures in extreme winds. The wind is able to wrap around the home as the conical roof system prevents the wind from creating negative pressure, responsible for lifting gable-styled roofs off of the structure and flattening the building.
Images from Hurricane Katrina show rectangular homes reduced to sticks, and neighbouring round homes not only standing but intact.
With the MCH airtight building envelope, there are no drafts and associated heat losses. Another advantage to a round home in high winds is that the wind doesn’t push against flat walls… it rolls right on by.
The result is a quiet and peaceful indoor environment as the wind howls outdoors.
Seismic activity
While not common in the Kootenay region of British Columbia, seismic activity – earthquakes – are a fact of life in other parts of the province and continent.
From our experience building homes on the west coast from California to Alaska, the feedback from our engineers is, because of the interconnected components of an MCH round home, it's inherently more resistant to earthquake activity.
Our engineers improve on the Mandala Homes natural strength with engineered steel connectors at each of the connector points. This makes them able to rock and roll with the quake but return stable and whole.
Interested in exploring a climate change ready, sustainable, prefab MCH custom round home? Speak with an MCH expert to learn more!
MCH Round Prefab Custom Homes Feature – Magnolia Series
Round on round! MCH prefab custom homes Magnolia Series maximizes all the benefits of round living in EVERY room!
Whether sleeping, eating, relaxing, or enjoying a soak in the tub, the Magnolia Series one of our most popular Mandala Custom Homes (MCH) prefab custom homes ensures you're surrounded by the holistic benefits of our unique faceted round living.
The foundation of the MCH round building mission and business is our triple bottom line: the health of the planet, the people, and sustainability. We exercise this philosophy in each and every MCH home through the use of the circle and the interconnection between all living things.
Round... Squared!
The concept of interconnection couldn't be more evident than in the MCH Magnolia Series – elegant prefab custom homes that create the perfect sanctuary whether you're in need of peace and tranquillity, enjoying quality family time, or want to entertain. This home design offers peaceful, private spaces along with bright, open areas in which to gather all in our unique prefab faceted round building.
Beautifully designed inside and out, this home design is an extraordinary combination of the classic Mandala circle encircled with radiating wings.
Round living -- a long and proven history
When your home is gracefully integrated into the landscape as the Magnolia so often is, you enjoy a dwelling that harkens to the long history of efficient and sustainable living humans have created for millennia.
We can look to many indigenous cultures to our long and established background of round home building. Throughout the world, and here in British Columbia, indigenous peoples looked to round architecture as the best and most efficient use of materials and superior structural strength.
The Magnolia, with no square exterior corners, leverages all the knowledge and experience of human history and provides a home that promotes all the health and wellness benefits known to be associated with round living.
Making the very most of space and light
So comfortable and spacious, our Magnolia homes are beautifully designed with careful consideration to create spaces that are at once practical and inspired by nature. They have been specifically planned to take advantage of light to create a spacious, healthy, and harmonious feeling home.
Your home is, after all, where you retreat to feel rested, refreshed, and rejuvenated -- where you fill your emotional and spiritual cup. It's where you foster connections with family and friends. The Magnolia custom prefab homes maximize space and light to create a holistic and healthy dwelling that supports your renewal and wellness, providing a refuge that nurtures and heals.
Ranging in size from 1100 square feet to almost 2200, the Magnolia Series maximizes the depth and breadth of circular living and all the benefits evident therein. And it can be customized to meet the unique needs of your lifestyle, family, and surrounding landscape.
Not just a home... an experience
In the words of Mandala Custom Homes founder, Lars Close, “We want to feel safe and nurtured by a healthy home — a protected environment.”
Your home should be an experience. It's not just where you lay your head at night. The time we spend at home should be an experience of nourishment – from the kitchen to the bedroom to the bedroom and every room we inhabit.
To achieve our outstanding sustainability, we are partnered with Built Green, a Master Builders Association certification, that promotes a holistic approach in which we leverage advanced building technologies to promote responsible sustainability practices. Every MCH home is a sum of its parts – building materials, HVAC equipment, windows, water and electrical needs, and building site orientation, to individual builder practices – in order to innovate sustainable home construction.
Each model in the Magnolia Series represents our MCH model of home construction, employing the best and most current building technologies to help you create an experience in your home that incurs significantly less environmental impact for a much healthier home that offers better cost savings each year you live in the house.
As with all MCH home designs, the Magnolia Series is built with our innovative system of environmentally sensitive Off-Site Manufacture (OSM) round custom prefab home construction.
To support sustainability, MCH relies on programs such as ENERGY STAR. It saves MCH homeowners thousands of kilowatt-hours of electricity along while supporting considerable reductions in harmful emissions.
MCH brings over 70 years of home building expertise to our design and planning services. When you purchase an MCH home, you can anticipate a more comfortable and relaxing living along with energy savings and sustainability in a house that is thoughtfully designed and built to nourish the soul.
MCH prefab custom homes -- a home to last generations
No matter the MCH home design you choose, enjoy peace of mind knowing you get the benefit of over 70 years of home building expertise and experience. You will have a home that combines both traditional and cutting edge, performance-based technologies to create a home that inspires, nurtures, and heals.
We ensure quality and energy efficiency in every home we build, year-round, and no matter where you live. We want to work WITH you to create the home of your dreams that will benefit your family for generations.
Are you interested in exploring high performance, sustainable prefab custom homes? Consider a Mandala Custom Homes round home. Speak with an MCH expert to learn more!
Building a Custom Prefab Performance Home: MCH Innovative Building Technologies
We want to ensure our health, happiness, and, now, productivity in our homes. A Mandala Custom Homes prefab performance home checks all the boxes!
More than ever, as we turn inwards to home for everything from work and school, to exercise and retreat, a healthy, holistic indoor environment has never been more vital.
As homebuilders, particularly after more than a year of a global pandemic, we are acutely aware of how important it is to be able to provide the safest, most secure, and healthiest indoor spaces possible. But, then again, pandemic or not, for Mandala Custom Homes (MCH) safety, health, and environmental consciousness has been core to our building philosophy since we began over 20 years ago.
It's what defines each and every distinctive and innovative MCH custom prefab performance home.
To ensure that we continue to stay ahead of the curve in prefab performance home building, we are constantly in pursuit of information and knowledge so that we can assure every client that their home will meet the very highest standards when it comes to innovation in construction and design.
MCH building technology for the prefab performance home
For MCH, it's always come down to health, ease, and environmental sustainability. We strive for innovation in every step of the home building process. When you work with MCH to build a unique and beautiful, custom round prefab performance home, we incorporate the best in green technology and that includes our Off-site Manufacture (OSM) home design system.
Our innovative approach provides exquisite craftsmanship to create harmonious spaces that nurture and inspire; maximum benefit with minimal environmental impact.
Each MCH prefab performance home is easily identified: genius round construction with faceted walls, an abundance of natural light, built with cutting-edge, sustainable OSM technologies.
Wall panels and the floor and roof components are all pre-built at our factory. Once complete, they are shipped to the homeowner's building site and constructed. OSM provides a number of benefits that include:
- Reduced construction time
- Simplified construction processes
- Higher quality, better control, and more consistency
- A higher degree of precision and quality control during the construction phase compared to stick-built on-site.
- A controlled production environment eliminates dependence on weather conditions
- Reduced waste on and off-site
- Incorporates sustainable solutions
- Achieves better energy performance
Environmental consciousness and sustainability
It's not a performance prefab home without environmental sensitivity. MCH looks to alternative energy or renewable energy, and green technologies – a safe, healthy and sustainable means of harvesting energy – to avoid the irreparable, and ultimately more costly, effects of burning fossil fuels.
Our unique building processes along with superior insulation, a sealed building envelope, and a quality HRV system contribute to a performance, or net-zero, home.
Technologies we utilize:
- Micro Hydro: flowing water is converted to energy to produce hydropower. Micro- Hydro can be effectively derived from a small seasonal creek whose flow is strong and consistent enough to convert into power.
- Wind Power: turbines convert wind into energy with their propeller-like blades. For instance, a rooftop-mountable Swift turbine, designed for urban and suburban homes, begins to generate power in winds of only 8-mph. It can produce 1,900 kWh per year at a 13.4-mph average wind speed and is never louder than 35 decibels.
- Solar Power: the use of photovoltaic (PV) cells to generate electricity from sunlight. Installed on rooftops, PV modules draw on the sun, the most readily available form of energy. More and more, as it becomes a more cost-effective option, solar power is an economical choice for homeowners.
- Net-zero systems: in addition to those sources listed above, MCH incorporates various other energy-efficient technologies into our homes: High-efficiency Energy Star appliances, high-efficiency CFL, LED and OLED lighting, exceptional thermal insulation in walls, roof, floors and basement, multiple passive heating and cooling principles, energy-optimized windows and doors, and an airtight building envelope with heat recovery ventilation.
The positive, holistic energy in a performance home
To build a performance prefab home is to create a dwelling that conserves more energy than is used. That is the net-zero, performance principle and it literally creates a positive energy house. This zero-energy fundamental, available in every MCH round home, integrates the holistic and sacred into everyday living.
Our homebuilding methodology promotes harmonious living indoors and out, incorporating nature and natural elements, in conjunction with round spaces. A holistic lifestyle – a vital connection to the natural world, understood innately throughout human evolution.
We build inspired spaces – abundant light, panoramic views, and incredible acoustics – to promote health, wellness, peace, and harmony.
Build your home of the future – an MCH prefab performance home. Download our FREE Plan & Design Book or CONTACT US!
MCH Round Prefab Custom Homes Feature – Elmwood Series
A popular choice in MCH prefab custom homes, the Elmwood Series is a versatile hybrid – merging the best of round and rectangular.
The circle – symbolizing the interconnection of all living things – is a foundational element in all Mandala Custom Homes (MCH) prefab custom homes. But, we understand that the addition of rectangular sections are necessary and desired by many homeowners.
That's why we designed the versatile, beautiful, and holistic hybrid Elmwood Series. This series is unique in the Mandala Homes lineup in that it combines the faceted round with a rectangular design. Some clients describe it as a hybrid but many call it “the best of both worlds”. This design is at home both as a countryside oasis or in an urban setting. When either your vision or the building site (or both!) require a blended approach of circular and rectangular shapes, the Elmwood Series is the ideal choice.
Not just a home... an experience
No matter which design you choose, all MCH prefab custom homes prioritize exceptional quality and energy efficiency. In every build, we create a dwelling that provides our homeowners with cost savings long-term as well as beautiful, nurturing holistic comfort, year-round, no matter where you live.
Ranging in size from 1200 square feet to almost 4000, the Elmwood Series fuses the circular and the rectangular, customized to meet the specific needs of your family, lifestyle, and surroundings.
Partnered with Built Green, a Master Builders Association certification, we proudly share in their holistic approach and engage advanced building technologies to foster responsible sustainability practices. With each individual home, we look at each project as a sum of its parts– site orientation, building materials, HVAC equipment, windows, water and electrical needs, to builder practices – striving to innovate sustainable construction.
Each home in the Elmwood Series embodies the MCH model where we employ the best and latest building technologies to create an experience in your home that offers not only less environmental impact, but a healthier home that provides increased cost savings with every passing year.
As with all MCH home designs, the Elmwood Series is constructed using innovative and environmentally sensitive Off-Site Manufacture (OSM) round custom prefab home construction.
As part of our sustainable approach, MCH relies on programs such as ENERGY STAR saving our homeowners thousands of kilowatt-hours of electricity along with deep reductions in harmful emissions.
Designed for efficient, spacious, and comfortable daily living, the Elmwood provides ample space, while still being cozy along with a bright openness, distinct to all of our custom homes.
MCH prefab custom homes maximize space and light
Spacious and infinitely comfortable, each of our Elmwood homes is thoughtfully and exquisitely designed to create nature-inspired spaces planned specifically to promote a very unique sense of light and harmony.
In the words of MCH founder, Lars Close, “We want to feel safe and nurtured by a healthy home — a protected environment.”
MCH fully integrates square corners with broad expanses of curved lines to offer the most intuitive and restful spaces possible. Your home is where you rejuvenate and fill your cup, where you connect with family and friends. Our Elmwood custom prefab homes use space and light to the utmost to ensure that your home supports revitalization, wellness, and renewal – a nurturing retreat from the world!
The versatility of the Elmwood Series cannot be overstated. One of the advantages of this design is the integration of a garage into the package. And, while we can custom design a garage for all of the MCH series, this model stands out because the garage is designed into the package.
MCH brings over 70 years of home building expertise to our design and planning services. When you purchase an MCH home, you can anticipate a more comfortable and relaxing living along with energy savings and sustainability in a house that is thoughtfully designed and built to nourish the soul.
No matter the MCH home design you choose, you can rest in the peace of mind, knowing that it will be constructed with the combined principles of traditional design and performance-based building technologies. We are committed to working with you – listening to you! – to ensure that we design and build the custom luxury home of your dreams.
Are you interested in a high performance, sustainable home? Is a Mandala Custom Homes round home right for you? Speak with an MCH expert to learn more!
7 New Home Building Trends in 2021. Nature-Inspired and Prefab Homes
Ahead of the curve – Mandala Custom Homes transcends home building trends in 2021 or any other year. Prefab homes inspired by nature is the foundation of our business.
Increased environmental consciousness, along with the impacts of a global pandemic, have profoundly influenced home building trends in 2021 and likely beyond. For over two decades, Mandala Custom Homes (MCH) have been building the very best in comfort, beauty, and sustainability with every one of our prefab home designs – no matter the trend!
With such intense focus on the home this past year, we thought we'd explore what has changed – what trends have emerged – as prospective homebuilders consider what they need from their dwellings in this pandemic age.
Not surprisingly, enhanced technological capabilities have risen to the fore, as have the need for greater contact with nature. No surprise to us, of course, is the demand for prefab homes given the cost-effective sustainability they offer. Read on for more interesting home building trends homeowners are embracing this year, and likely for many years to come.
1. Smart homes
With ever-greater demand on the full-service functionality of our homes, it makes sense that automated systems and smart homes are increasing in popularity. Whether it's a new build or a retrofit, people want more control over their lights, security, temperature, entertainment in their homes – even when they're away.
Smart homes offer homeowners greater comfort and peace of mind not to mention better control over their consumption which helps with the utilities bill!
2. Multipurpose and open spaces
There has never been a greater demand on the home than in the past year. The need to create multi-functional spaces hit us last spring when all aspects of our lives all of a sudden happened within the confines of our houses.
Open spaces that accomodate different activities and rooms that can serve more than one role have become integral to the comfort and functionality of not just the home itself, but for us, too. We want to feel like we can work, school, and live without feeling cramped and overwhelmed.
The trend to create more open, multi-functional spaces includes looking to innovative, transparent building materials as well as furnishings to help gain space as well as light.
3. More light, less noise!
Noise can be such a potent pollutant; one that we're exposed to outdoors, of course, but in many cases, indoors, too. A very positive home building trend this year is increased consciousness of construction methodologies and materials that help to minimize noise inside the home.
The curve of an MCH round home softens sounds and noise inside the home providing an optimal indoor environment for rest, reflection, and rejuvenation. For music lovers or when you're able to socialize once again, MCH acoustics offer superior acoustics providing perfect sound quality to enhance the living experience in your home.
Perhaps even more beneficial is the focus on increasing and enhancing light indoors – we crave more of it! We're happier and more productive when we are exposed to abundant natural light. This includes orienting the dwelling to maximize daylight and adding more windows and doors that allow for greater light in the home, but also utilizing artificial lighting technologies that mimic sunlight.
4. Bringing nature indoors
A foundation of the MCH approach is the vital connection to nature that is fostered in each and every one of our prefab homes. We are all attracted to nature, and there is plenty of evidence that supports the simple fact that interacting with nature is vital to health and happiness. However, when we spend an average of 90% of our time indoors, our exposure to nature and natural elements can be very limited.
A solution: bring nature indoors. Whether it's with windows that offer a view, or specific natural and nature-inspired design elements and materials indoors, they're all beneficial.
Nature can be experienced indoors through design strategies that replicate natural patterns in the design and finishing details. Using natural materials wherever possible is one easy strategy. Wood, bamboo, and stone easily bring nature into the home – walls, support beams, floors, and ceilings offer plenty of opportunities.
A particular study explored how different ratios of wood to other materials influenced physiological responses. The researchers found that a space containing even a moderate ratio of wood (45% coverage) provided subjects with a feeling of “comfort”. The results included significantly decreased diastolic blood pressure with significant increases in pulse rate.
MCH understands fundamentally our need to experience nature in the home. Circular living offers balance – surrounded by natural elements and nature-inspired design while enjoying abundant natural light and views helps us return inward to the self.
5. Modern minimalism
The minimalist trend continues. As it evolves, it includes the commitment to less stuff, of course, but it has expanded to promote a the use of simple forms and design incorporating quality, modern and innovative, and often, natural materials.
Modern minimalism encourages sustainability and efficiency to promote both cost-savings and a sense of space and freedom from the constraints of clutter and excess.
6. Prefab homes
Making it even more into the mainstream of home construction, prefab homes are taking off as a sustainable, efficient, and cost-effective alternative. More and more, designers and architects are looking to prefab and modular construction technologies to quickly and efficiently build beautiful, environmentally friendly, and durable homes that last for generations.
Don't we know it?! The innovative MCH offsite manufacturing method of construction to create our distinctive round homes offers forward-thinking and environmentally aware homeowners with not only exceptionally comfortable and beautiful spaces but with minimal impact on the environment.
Given our commitment to energy-efficiency and sustainability, we knew that prefab, panelized home construction was an inherently green way to build. As a result, our efforts innovating prefab home construction have been recognized by several green building certifications, including the ICC 700 National Green Building Standard.
MCH home construction allows for fast, prefabricated assembly in our specialized factory. Our approach ensures there is no exposure to the elements (as per conventional site-built construction) which can negatively impact the integrity of materials and final construction. It prevents potentially costly issues such as mildew, mold, warping, popped nails and screws, and an increased likelihood of squeaky floors.
7. Passive houses
What may be considered a home building trend, is to MCH, a building philosophy. And has been since our inception over twenty years ago.
A home should integrate with its surroundings – efficiently utilize available resources while maximizing energy and cost savings. Passive homes save the homeowner money year after year, but they also improve the health and quality of life of those who live within.
Every MCH round home is designed and built to be ENERGY STAR certified. This ensures you live comfortably no matter the season and reduce emissions as you save thousands of kilowatt-hours of electricity. MCH prefab homes consistently deliver quality, durability, performance, and savings.
Green Building and Sustainable Living – Enhanced Health and Wellness
Creating dwellings that support optimum health and wellness is our number one commitment. It's also a foundational principle in our green building philosophy.
Throughout two decades of green home building, Mandala Custom Homes (MCH) has worked tirelessly to study, explore, experiment, and innovate to build the most sustainable and environmentally sensitive homes possible. The desired end result is to always create beautiful and sublimely comfortable homes for every MCH customer.
Green building is more than just energy-efficient windows and more, or higher rated insulation. While essentials factors in sustainable home building, there's much more to it.
The primary component in the MCH green building process is to create a building envelope, to establish an indoor living environment that is moderated for optimal comfort and experience. Achieving this led MCH to build British Columbia’s first ENERGY STAR certified home to help achieve deep emissions reductions and save our clients thousands of kilowatt-hours of electricity.
When systems such as EnerGuide, measuring and rating the energy efficiency of buildings and consumer products, rates a home for energy performance, the higher the rating the more efficient the home. To score a high rating, a home should incorporate only energy sources that are renewable – micro-hydro, solar power, and innovative building methods to ensure that the home takes up a minimal carbon footprint.
And Mandala Custom Homes most certainly does!
Green building promotes health and harmony
For the environment and ourselves.
Mandala Custom Homes is partnered with Built Green, a Master Builders Association certification. With a shared vision and approach that involves advanced holistic building technologies, we promote responsible and sustainable home building practices. Both MCH and Built Green consider a building project simply the sum of its parts. These include innovative building materials, site orientation, windows and doors, HVAC equipment, electrical and water use, as well as builder practices.
We rely on the very best and latest building technologies to create the most durable and most environmentally conscious, as well as the healthiest homes possible. Not to mention the enviable cost savings that these technologies provide.
A fundamental part of the MCH green building picture is our Off-Site Manufacture (OSM) round home construction. Innovative, fast, and super-efficient, the prefabrication of every MCH home, presents a beautifully designed and inspired home with minimal environmental impact.
We create refuges from the world! A protective, nurturing, peaceful retreat each and every day. As MCH founder, Lars Close states, “We want to feel safe and nurtured by a healthy home — a protected environment.” Every Mandala Custom Home is created to provide the homeowner and their family and friends a sense of enhanced consciousness, wellness, harmony, and light.
Creating sacred round spaces for healthy, sustainable living
MCH and each unique and exquisite round home integrate the sacred into day-to-day living. Inspired by nature and the harmony found there, our cutting edge, thoughtfully designed, energy-efficient construction incorporates faceted round building to provide an abundance of light as well as a distinctive sense of harmony and well-being known to be beneficial throughout centuries of human existence. We bring the outdoors in to provide all the benefits of nature, from the comfort of your living room!
Along with the superior acoustics and panoramic views of a round home, there is security knowing the design and construction of the home stands up to all manner of extreme weather events and conditions, from heavy snowfall to hurricanes.
Sustainability, durability, and quality go hand-in-hand with every MCH round home. As such, our homes are highly desirable and maintain their value.
Things are ever-changing. Keeping current is integral to making sure we offer the very best in green building and sustainability. We're proud that we stay ahead of the trends! We want to help you make the most informed choice possible when you choose to build a custom home. You can trust that MCH is passionate about new, green building technologies and helping homeowners create the most conscious, healthy, and sustainable dwellings we can. Our pursuit of knowledge and information is vital to building beautiful, durable, and wonderfully comfortable homes to last for generations.
Custom Prefab Homes – Quality, Efficiency, and High Performance Built to Last
High-performance, custom, prefab homes promote efficiency, quality, comfort, and affordability for years, if not generations, to come.
Homeowners typically don't think about their homes in terms of performance. When it comes to our homes, most consider the design, flow, and functionality to meet specific individual and family needs. Certainly, we're all concerned about how much our energy bills cost us each month. But, our energy usage and spending tends to be considered simply a function of homeownership and in most cases, beyond the typical homeowner's control.
Those of us in the business of custom prefab homes, however, consider performance above all else. And that homeowners can, in fact, have authority over how much they spend to power and heat their homes.
In the case of a Mandala Custom Homes dwelling, we aim to put the power in the hands of the homeowner – to more efficiently and sustainably manage their energy footprint. And a high-performance home does just that.
What is a high-performance home?
In short, high-performance homes promote health and comfort while using far less energy to do so.
You will see a variety of performance terminology out there – ENERGY STAR, LEED, passive house, and others.
You'll find that a high-performance home will include better and higher rated insulation (for example, Mandala Custom Homes uses R66 ceiling insulation and R34 wall insulation), a Heat Recovery Ventilation (HRV) system to maintain the best in healthy indoor air quality, and enhanced airtightness.
When you choose a high-performance, custom pre-fab home, you enjoy:
- healthier indoor air quality
- enhanced comfort
- lower energy bills
- increased sustainability – lower greenhouse gas emissions
- better resale value
Yes, you can expect to pay a little more for a high-performance home. But, the energy consumption and associated costs you save moving forward make it well worth the initial price.
High-performance and prefabrication can go hand-in-hand
Part of the Mandala Custom Homes prefab home picture is the high-performance aspects from our innovative design to the years you get to enjoy once moved in. With expert, experienced, and precision construction, prefab homes are known for their superior energy efficiency with significantly lower heating and cooling costs.
Did you know? A home that is drafty can result in as much as 30% of a home's heat loss. When you address leaking air, you address the loss of heat and, ultimately, poor energy performance.
Designed and built from the outside-in, it's all about the energy-efficiency and comfort of the completed building envelope. For instance, we use higher quality window systems, high-performance insulations (yes, it costs more short-term but saves over the longer run), and securely sealing the structure to prevent air leaks (from both the in- and outdoors).
Prefabricated construction took hold around 50 years as both architects and builders began to identify the unique savings to be had. Between build schedule and time as well as labour costs, it was found that building a home in the controlled environment of a factory could have a significant impact on what a home would cost.
Innovation in construction, infrastructure, and sustainability has allowed custom prefab homes innovations to move into higher-end markets, particularly with those who have an enhanced environmental consciousness and value green building.
MCH custom prefab homes make high-performance beautiful
When you choose a Mandala Custom Homes package, the experience begins with the construction of the dwelling’s fundamental structural components in a climate-controlled facility before the package is transported to the building site where construction can be completed.
A custom prefab home, assembled in a factory, results in faster build completion onsite – built to lock-up and weather-tight in only a matter of days! As a result, there is significantly less interference or impact to the surrounding environment. There's also significantly less building and material waste and easier site cleanup, particularly when compared to a site-built home. And, when you choose an experienced and highly skilled architect and engineer, there are few limits to what can be built with prefab construction – the custom, prefab home of your dreams!
Custom panelized or prefab home construction is simply a high-performance and inherently green way to build. For Mandala Custom Homes, our efforts have been recognized in the various green building certifications we've achieved, including the ICC 700 National Green Building Standard.
When you work with Mandala Custom Homes, you make the choice to make the most of beauty, comfort, quality, and performance. With each and every project, our expert team brings specialized expertise, skills, and experience to your prefab home design and building experience – that means enhanced consistency and exceptional quality. From our first meeting to the day you move in, enjoy the confidence knowing that the MCH full home design and planning service is backed by over 70 years of house building expertise.
If you have questions or are interested in working with us to build your high-performance custom prefab home, be sure to download our unique Plan and Design Book. Want to speak with one of our expert team? TALK TO US!
20 Years Building Round Homes. 20 Ways MCH Has Become an Industry Leader
With 20 years building round homes, we've learned a thing or thirty! As we close out our anniversary year, here are 20 ways we've grown into industry leaders.
Here we are... the end of one of the longest years EVER!
We're bringing our 20th anniversary to a close, and it inspires us to take stock of what we've learned over the past 20 years and how far we've come and evolved. As a business, but also as experts and industry leaders in holistic, energy-efficient homebuilding.
Ironically, our 20th anniversary year was one of the most surreal, stressful, and uncertain in recent memory. It was also one where we all became acutely aware and connected to our homes. These months of pandemic have brought health, wellness, and the comfort and reprieve of home to the forefront of our consciousness.
As a result, people have been drawn to home design concepts that facilitate and nurture a more holistic, healthy and sustainable way of living. Enter Mandala Custom Homes!
It makes sense that if you’re looking for a home that better fosters health and well-being than a conventional dwelling, Mandala Custom Homes – a leader in the industry – and our unique and beautiful round homes offers among the very best to meet your needs.
MCH round homes – 20 years of expertise and experience
We’ve worked hard, drawing on years of research, trial and error, modern innovations and the incredible talents of our team to offer exceptional design, workmanship, and service with all of our MCH round homes.
As our last post of 2020 and our final to acknowledge 20 years building exceptional round homes, here are 20 ways in which we’re proud to have become industry leaders:
- We are committed to energy-efficiency – we built British Columbia’s, first ENERGY STAR certified house.
- No status-quo. With an eye always on innovation in sustainability and green building, we are always enhancing and improving building and processes.
- We actively build our homes beyond code.
- We look to innovative techniques to create energy-efficient buildings such as wrapping the building walls with rigid foam – to keep the dew point outside the exterior wall. By shifting the focus to creating an airtight thermal barrier to prevent air and cold/heat penetration to the inside.
- No MCH innovation goes untested. For example, to confirm the efficiency of the wrapping technique, MCH conducted a blower door test to determine the air infiltration rate (how many air exchanges per hour) on an MCH built in Alaska, resulting in an impressive .52 rating (.52 exchanges per hour). The average older home can experience up to 5-6 exchanges per hour.
- Our prefab building ensures that every MCH building is energy-efficient by ensuring an airtight building envelope.
- Mandala Custom Homes uses software that we created to ensure that we consistently build the most energy-efficient and sustainable building envelope for every climatic zone in North America.
- We perform a solar and wind study to inform the design of the house to maximize energy efficiency and client comfort.
- Our homes have an engineered lifetime warranty for all structural components designed to withstand site conditions related to seismic activity, wind, and snow loading.
- We use only non-toxic materials in our homes and the production process.
- All MCH round homes have the option to be energy audited and modelled to ensure the most energy efficiency possible.
- Prefabricated building – with each home built in an environmentally controlled environment – and all of the innovative, sustainable, and cost-saving benefits it offers, is the primary MCH building method.
- Each of our homes is built with extreme attention to detail. Every home component produced undertakes a rigorous quality control inspection.
- All the components are pre-finished with high-quality finishes.
- We are constantly involved in rigorous R&D on new materials and processes.
- We combine beautiful and innovative design with prefabrication to create durable, healthy, and beautiful round homes.
- Biophilia, or the connection to nature outdoors and in, is fundamental to every MCH round home design.
- Our prefab homes are handcrafted and we use local materials as much as possible.
- Mandala Custom Homes creates holistic designs that mesh with the needs of the client, the site and the budget.
- Our customer service and your satisfaction is paramount. Client-centric in all aspects of our customer engagement and service, we go the extra mile to ensure 100 % customer satisfaction, from start to finish. All engagements whether it is with clients, suppliers, building inspectors and building professionals are met with friendliness and kindness.
In closing, we wish all of you all the very best in the New Year -- good health, wellness, and prosperity -- and the comfort, warmth, and nourishing goodness of home.
Interested in building your home of the future… right now? Download our FREE Plan & Design Book or CONTACT US!
A Healthy Home Has Never Been More Important – 20 Reasons To Choose MCH!
A healthy home can be integral to sustain our minds, bodies, and souls – as it provides us with essential security, safety, and peace of mind.
No matter what's happening in the world outside our doors.
With COVID-19 numbers on the rise across the province and beyond this fall, the second wave of the pandemic – combined with the distinct chill of winter in the air – has us hunkering down, unlike any autumn in recent memory.
More than ever, we rely on our homes to provide a place of vital safety and solace.
But what makes for a healthy home that properly provides everything we need within our "four walls" to ensure that we are safe? Well, to start, clean air, sustainable heat source, and reduced noise pollution, to name just a few.
Designed and built for health and well-being
Building a healthy home begins the design phase. It follows through to the infrastructure and construction phases to ensure that the integrity and sustainability of the home support health, safety, and well-being long-term. This is fundamental to the Mandala Custom Homes (MCH) process.
Smart, innovative, and intuitive in design, we integrate advanced efficiency in construction into beautiful, round, pre-fab homebuilding. It is our goal with every home we build to create a dwelling where you will feel the most comfortable and at ease – a protective and peaceful refuge from the chaos and stresses of the outside world.
As MCH founder, Lars Close maintains, “The value of home is forefront on people’s minds. We want to feel safe and nurtured by a healthy home — a protected environment.”
In that spirit – the importance of a nurturing home – here are 20 reasons to choose an MCH round home to promote a better sense of safety, health and well-being in your home for today, and for generations to come:
- The Mandala Custom Homes holistic approach. We design and build with holistic health and wellness as one of the foundational pillars of both our business and building models.
- Naturally safer than a typical home. Due to its innovative and faceted design and construction, an MCH healthy home can endure the most extreme conditions – heavy snow loads, hurricane-force winds, or earthquakes. An MCH home can also include fire-resistant insulation and cladding to help provide an even safer dwelling for you, your family, and your investment.
- Long-established principles of design merge with innovative and performance-based building technologies. MCH creates dwellings that nourish the soul as we implement the most cutting-edge technology solutions to provide sustainable, energy savings for the life of your healthy home. An MCH round home requires no external energy to circulate temperature and is designed to maximize the natural thermal dynamics of open-at-the-top architecture. As a result, there is less energy required to maintain a consistent and comfortable indoor temperature, regardless of the season.
- An HRV air exchange system. A Heat Recovery Ventilation System (HRV) is an indoor/outdoor air exchange system. It will keep indoor air fresh and moisture-free.
- Incorporating biophilia. Defined as a desire or tendency to commune with nature, it's essentially, to bring the outside in. MCH round homes provide panoramic views and a sense of connection and relationship with nature. It's a concept that fundamentally informs the entire MCH living experience.
- Surrounded by the warmth of wood. The beauty and comfort of a wood interior will embrace you in a sense of natural warmth and well-being that helps to promote a harmonious and healthy lifestyle.
- Integrating the sacred into everyday living. With each and every project, MCH is guided by a vision inspired by the harmony that exists within round spaces. From the company's founding, the vision has been inspired by the harmony innate to the natural world and throughout human evolution.
- Peaceful. The round shape of an MCH home offers welcome sound-proofing from outdoor noise and ruckus. How does it work? Sound waves disperse as they wrap around the structure which helps to shield the inside from the noises outdoors.
- Sounds are softened indoors. The lovely curve of an MCH round home actually serves to soften sounds indoors. As a result, you enjoy a peaceful indoor environment that fosters relaxation, rest, rejuvenation, and reflection. Even better if you're a music lover or like to entertain as the acoustics of a faceted round home offer sublime sound quality!
- Our unique and inclusive design process. Mandala Custom Homes has become known for our talented, sensitive, and inquisitive designers. They provide thoughtful attention to your needs, wishes, and desires throughout the design process to ensure you have a home you'll love. With careful consideration of your unique lifestyle, MCH designers work closely with you to ensure you will have a dwelling that supports everything you do in your home for years and generations to come.
- Passive solar design. MCH reins in the sun’s tremendous energy to heat and cool the homes we build. An alternative, renewable – or green – energy, our method of solar design leverages a healthy, safe, and sustainable means of harvesting energy. Solar design is a high-performing alternative to the damaging and increasingly irreparable impacts of utilizing fossil fuels.
- Reduces waste. Prefabrication is the process that defines the MCH building methodology. Our innovative Off-Site Manufacture (OSM) system encourages an economical use of building products – everything is used and nothing goes to waste. The results include minimal materials waste, less surrounding environmental intrusion at the building site and much easier cleanup.
- The intuitiveness of round. A circle represents an interconnection – wholeness, totality, original perfection, the infinite, the Self, eternity, timelessness, all cyclic movement, all living things. A simple shape, the circle, is much more efficient and sustainable than a more complex one – a rectangle, for instance. In fact, an MCH round home uses 15 to 20% less material to create a rectangular design of the same square footage! As a result, a circular home takes up a smaller eco-footprint and costs less, without compromising space for living.
- Fast, factory, prefabricated, assembly. With the MCH prefabricated building system, there is minimal, if any, exposure to the elements compared to conventional site-built construction. Exposure to outdoor conditions can take its toll on building materials and negatively impact the final construction – mildew, mould, popped screws and nails, warped wood, and an increased probability the building will have squeaky floors.
- Consciousness – ENERGY STAR certified. MCH has the distinction of having built British Columbia’s first ENERGY STAR certified home. Our ENERGY STAR certification ensures you will live comfortably no matter the season, but it will also save you thousands of kilowatt-hours of electricity. MCH creates a building envelope that provides a moderate, and always comfortable, indoor environment as it significantly reduces emissions. Every MCH home we create provides quality, performance, and savings. Not to mention predictable and consistent energy-efficiency for the life of your home.
- Green homebuilding. We are proud of how minimally MCH's homes impact the surrounding environment. We are committed to sustainability and energy-efficiency and know that panelized home construction is building methodology that is inherently green. MCH has achieved a variety of green building certifications, including the ICC 700 National Green Building Standard.
- Transparency. We don't like surprises – particularly when it comes to one of the most significant investments we make in our lifetime. No stressful cost overruns. Unlike a site-built home, where cost overruns are a common stressor; at Mandala Custom Homes, you get a guaranteed price for your home package. The Mandala Custom Homes process, from the first consultation to the day you move into your new MCH round home, is open and transparent – intended to be as free of stress as possible.
- Minimize homebuilding stress. The psychology of building or renovating a home can be very complicated, in some cases destructive, with the potential to harm relationships as well as mental health. Given Lars' extensive background in human psychology, he aimed to find a building solution that would be far less stressful to the homeowner. In answer, prefabrication became the founding principle upon which the entire MCH round home building business was borne. He identified that prefab home building could reduce building timelines and, as a result, reduce the stress and tension associated with it. An MCH home can be built very quickly – as quickly as three weeks!
- A round MCH home sustains unique and healing energy. An MCH round home provides wonderfully holistic design and technologies – combining a thoughtful and intelligent layout of space with the natural movement of air and sound – to create and preserve an inspired, healing, and tranquil energy.
- The Mandala Custom Homes commitment to a uniquely high standard of service and quality. We want you to have the very best home possible – to enjoy for years to come or take advantage of the value it holds if you choose to sell it. The MCH design and planning service is backed by over 70 years of luxury home building expertise. We know you'll love your new Mandala Custom Homes round home and will appreciate, for years and years to come, the enhanced comfort, safety, and holistic living experience that comes with it.
Wondering if a Mandala Custom Homes round home is right for you?
Speak with one of our experts to find out how building a Mandala Custom Homes round home is the best choice for the safety and health of you and your loved ones.
20 Reasons to Build a Net Zero Home
What is a net zero home and why should you build one? Here are 20 fabulous reasons why it's the natural home choice.
In short, a net zero home draws its own energy from clean natural energy resources, attained from the home's surroundings. The home, if truly net zero, will consume only as much energy as it takes to sustain itself and the activities within.
EnerGuide rates a home for its energy performance. The higher the rating – or the lower the Energuide number – the more efficient the home. In order to be considered net zero, a home will utilize only renewable sources of energy, such as solar power and micro hydro, and incorporate innovative building techniques that ensure the home produces net zero emissions.
These 20 reasons to build a net zero home will help clarify the many benefits – and why you can look to Mandala Custom Homes (MCH) to provide the ultimate in nurturing, healthy, and healing living environment:
1. Doing your part against climate change
Through an amalgamation of innovative design, technologies, and building techniques, a zero energy home produces net zero carbon emissions. Your home will not contribute to climate change. The MCH model is founded on our innovative Off-Site Manufacture (OSM) round home construction. Every Mandala home presents minimal impact on the environment while providing you an exquisitely and sensitively designed and inspired dwelling in harmony with nature.
2. Fresher, cleaner air indoors
Zero energy homes have airtight walls and incredibly efficient air circulation systems. With advanced ventilation systems, the home is provided with pre-cooled or pre-heated filtered, fresh air. Through these systems, the resulting air is free of outdoor allergens and pollutants that help keep your indoor air as clean and healthy as possible.
3. Reduce your living expenses
Energy bills are nearly, if not entirely, nil in a net zero home. You may incur a small monthly hook-up fee, but overall, from the moment you move in, your home costs are significantly less than a conventional home.
4. Protection from increasing energy costs
As we all know, energy prices are not static. You can count on energy costs fluctuating, if not consistently increasing, with each passing year. A zero energy home allows you count on a consistent amount that you'll pay over time – essentially, zero or near zero – as your home is generating onsite the energy you need.
5. Net zero for durability
Innovative and durable building methodologies and materials help to make a net zero home, and a Mandala Custom Home, far more durable than a conventional home. In fact, MCH round houses are of such superior strength, they're able to withstand all manner of extreme weather conditions and events, including heavy snowfall and hurricanes. This means your home will last for generations with far less maintenance and potentially costly repairs.
6. Enjoy exceptional comfort year round
With its cutting edge energy-efficiency and peaceful, user-friendly systems for cooling and heating, a net zero home provides a comfortable and pleasant living experience throughout the year, and no matter the weather.
7. Much healthier living
A zero energy home – and an MCH round home – is always constructed with health in mind, that of the environment and the homeowner. Net zero home building includes non-toxic materials, surfaces, and finishes, in addition to the aforementioned innovative fresh air systems. It all adds up to a much healthier home in which to live for many, many years.
8. Quiet, peaceful, relaxing
With its well-insulated wall structure and advanced window technology, a net zero home is built to be completely airtight. In addition to energy-efficiency, a wonderful biproduct is a home that is blissfully quiet and peaceful, insulated as much from outdoor noise as it is from the heat and cold.
9. Low maintenance living
Due to its durability and airtight construction and along with its advanced fresh air system, a net zero home is easier to keep clean and very low maintenance. Fresh, filtered air means you'll experience less dust and easier house cleaning. And, as moisture can accumulate, unlike conventional construction, you'll benefit from no water damage or mold.
10. Welcome the sun!
Through passive solar design methodologies, a zero energy home makes the absolute most of natural sun and daylight. You'll experience a whole new relationship with the sun -- powering your house as it fills your home with bright, warm, and inviting natural light.
11. Windows for light – NOT exchanging air
Did you know? Inefficient windows alone can account for as much as 15 percent of a home’s heating and cooling losses, and up to 25 percent of a home’s energy bill. This makes windows a fundamental component when it comes to the energy efficiency of any home. MCH takes advantage of today's innovative and sophisticated glazing systems with a range of products that respond directly to heat and light conditions.
12. Enjoy paying less for water
A true net zero home will include water-saving fixtures and appliances – toilets, faucets, washing machines and dishwashers – to help you save significantly on water expenses.
13. Build zero energy anywhere
You can build a net zero home – or an MCH round home! – just about anywhere. From hot, tropical zones to dry, desert regions, to the extreme cold of Alaska, utilizing location-specific data, a zero energy home builder will tailor your home to the climate pattern of your building site, ensuring that your home is comfortable no matter where you build it.
14. Net zero offers higher value when you want to sell
Between the exceptional energy-efficiency, the advanced and innovative building and energy technologies, and it's remarkable durability, a zero energy home will provide you with a very high resale value.
15. Rest easy knowing you're using clean energy
Enjoy great peace of mind and freedom knowing you're living in a home that is free from the pollution of fossil fuels. Your net zero or MCH round home has been built to utilize only clean, renewable sources of energy.
16. Hot water? Instant and abundant
Most net zero homes conserve hot water as they incorporporate either an energy-saving circulating hot water system or a centrally located hot water heater. Save on your water bill as you enjoy virtually instant hot water right to your sink, tub, or shower.
17. Energy-efficient lighting
Despite the abundance of natural lighting in most net zero homes, there is still the need for additional lighting. To make up the difference, strategically placed, energy-efficient lighting solutions are necessary. For example, energy-saving LED lights to suit your various spaces – bright light where you need it and soft lighting just where you want it.
18. A smart investment
Your home is probably the most significant investment you'll make in your lifetime – the biggest purchase by far. When you invest in a net zero home, you have the assurance that the technologies and innovations are forward-thinking and, essentially, built to the standards of the future. A zero energy home costs less to own from the moment you move in, and it's an investment that will continue to pay a variety of beneficial dividends – not the least of which is your health and happiness – each and every day you live in it.
19. Positive, holistic, healing energy in your home
On the practical side, when you conserve more electricity than the average, your net zero home generates more than you use – a positive energy house. On the more ethereal side, a zero energy home, as with an MCH round home, offers an integration of the sacred into your everyday experience of living. A Mandala Custom Homes round house is inspired by the harmony existing in nature and within the round spaces found in nature and throughout human evolution.
With panoramic views and wonderful acoustics, an MCH round home is an inspired space that promotes a sense of holistic health, peace, light, and exquisite harmony.
20. You will be a pioneer
Lead the way to a better future with your net zero home. You can feel good knowing that you are doing the best you can for both your family and the environment. With a zero energy, or a MCH round home, you can enjoy cutting-edge, state-of-the-art, innovative home design, building technologies, sustainability, and energy-efficiency for years and years to come.
Build your home of the future... right now? Mandala Custom Homes wants to do it with you. Download our FREE Plan & Design Book or CONTACT US!