Nelson-based Man­dala Cus­tom Homes, now in its 8th year of pro­duc­ing fac­tory built round homes, has decided that the best way to meet the grow­ing demand for energy effi­cient build­ings is to offer round and square build­ings. To that end, they’ve just com­pleted con­struc­tion of a new pro­duc­tion facil­ity on High­way 3a south of Nel­son, and with it they’ve increased their pro­duc­tion capa­bil­ity.

“This is a huge step for the com­pany,” says owner Lars Chose. “We’ve been build­ing green for years, but with the grow­ing pub­lic aware­ness of cli­mate change and ris­ing fuel costs, inter­est in energy effi­cient build­ings has really taken off in the last year and a half.”

Over the past decade, Man­dala Cus­tom Homes has become known as a leader in the pre­fab­ri­cated round home mar­ket. While they con­tinue to build round struc­tures, Chose has real­ized that Mandala’s unique com­bi­na­tion of green build­ing and fac­tory con­struc­tion is ideal for almost any shape of build­ing. “We’ve re-tooled our busi­ness model some­what,” he says, “because lots of peo­ple want healthy, energy effi­cient homes but not nec­es­sar­ily round ones.”

With the new pro­duc­tion facil­ity, Man­dala is able to pre-fabricate any size or shape of struc­ture, either one from their own pre-designs or a cus­tom design they do or ones brought to them by a client, con­trac­tor or devel­oper. “Round homes, square homes, garages and cot­tages, you name it, we can pre­fab­ri­cate it,” says Chose.

For home­own­ers and con­trac­tors alike, it’s easy to see why buy­ing a factory-built struc­ture makes sense. Not only is the process inher­ently energy effi­cient because it pro­duces tighter build­ings by con­struct­ing them in an envi­ron­men­tally con­trolled pro­duc­tion facil­ity, there is also much less waste and less site dis­tur­bance plus far less labor required to con­struct. To fur­ther sup­port the company’s com­mit­ment to green build­ing, Chose is work­ing with a pro­fes­sional team accred­ited by LEED (Lead­er­ship in Energy and Envi­ron­men­tal Design– a North America-wide green build­ing cer­ti­fi­ca­tion sys­tem) con­sist­ing of a local archi­tect, designer and engi­neer.

“Pre-fab has always been a more effi­cient way to build,” says Chose, “Now it’s becom­ing known as a higher qual­ity, greener and less expen­sive alter­na­tive to tra­di­tional on-site con­struc­tion. For con­trac­tors and devel­op­ers, it means increased effi­ciency, lower labor costs and less has­sle. To max­i­mize the new factory’s capac­ity, Chose antic­i­pates hir­ing a sec­ond shop crew in the com­ing months. He also antic­i­pates sig­nif­i­cant spin-off busi­ness for local com­mu­ni­ties, since he makes a point of buy­ing many of his mate­ri­als close to home.

For any­one inter­ested in learn­ing more about pre­fab­ri­cated green and energy effi­cient build­ings, check out www.mandalahomes.com, or call them at 250–352-5582, 1–866-352‑5503.