EUGENE – When Genghis Khan was busy piecing together his empire during the 13th century, yurts were providing shelter for wandering Mongolians. Portable and warm, the circular, energy-efficient structures shielded the nomads from high winds and frigid winters.

Centuries later, the concept of this indigenous architecture is transcending the boundaries of its uses in the past and becoming a home design of the future.

Eugene-based Oregon Yurtworks, a state-certified prefabricated component manufacturer of wooden yurts, is creating a niche in the world of square houses, said Morgan Reiter, president and owner of the company.

”The reality is, it’s such a unique structure.” In fact, few people have even heard of a yurt before, he said. ”Whenever we put one up, there would be a buzz.”

Although the yurt comes from the Mongols, the name ”yurt” came to the Western world from Russian merchants, traders and marauders of many years ago. To the Mongol, his home was simply known as ”ger,” meaning ”dwelling.”

It was in the early 1970s that Reiter, an architecture student in Vermont, first studied the yurt’s unique design. After moving to the Applegate Valley in 1973, he purchased a plot of property and built one – 200 square feet.

Working as a carpenter at the time, he began building them in his spare time for friends and onlookers who wanted one of their own.

”This was just a real evolving process,” he said. ”There was no advertising on my part, there was no business plan on my part. There was just this knocking on my door, Can you build me one of these?’”

So 20 years ago Reiter started his business, Oregon Yurtworks, opening a prefab manufacturing facility that is now building home kits at a rate of about one a week. The company, through its Web site, has picked up customers along the West Coast, Hawaii and across the country. During the 2001 Winter Olympics, nine of them were shipped to Salt Lake City.

The company is also broadening its reach internationally, Reiter said.

Oregon Yurtworks just recently made an agreement with a distributor in Japan and has already shipped kits to Australia.

”The interest and demand is phenomenal,” he said.

The most familiar kind of yurt is one that has been used for years in the woods as a cabin. These yurts have a lattice framework, around the side, and rafters across the ceiling.

These rafters rest on a cable and come together at the peak of the roof where they are inserted into a crown, eliminating the need for a center pole. The tension and compression-designed skeleton structure is then wrapped with a heavy canvas tent fabric.

But Reiter said yurts have limitless possibilities as custom homes, too.

First, think round.

The yurts themselves can be as small or as big as a homeowner wants them, Reiter said. Some owners have built small ones in their backyards that serve as offices.

Then there’s a congregation on the East Coast that’s building one large enough to seat 300 people during mass, he said.

The yurt can be divided into multiple rooms: the kitchen, living room and dining room, with ancillary rooms in trapezoidal ”wings,” off the main structure. Yurts can also be stacked to make a multi-floor home, or connected side-by-side.

The wooden yurts are polygonal and well lighted, Reiter said. Skylights can be installed at the peak of the yurt and windows can be installed on every side.

”One of the neat things is (our designs) are completely client driven,” he said. ”We’ve always had people come to us, Can you do this?’”

He added, ”The range and flexibility of these structure is enormous.”

Yurts meet city codes, are bank financeable and allowed on most city lots. And they’re economical, costing about 10 to 20 percent less than the average custom home, Reiter said.

Those who assemble their own kits will pay between $55 and $75 per square foot, and for those who hire a builder, $75 to $95 per square foot.

Yurts don’t take long to assemble either. The basic structure of one can go up in as few as six days.

But the best part is the feel of the home, Reiter said. The first time people walk into one, their heads crane upward at the peak and then spiral around the room to take in the yurt’s ”warm and gentle” ambiance.

Reiter, who lives in a yurt himself, said it’s one of the best parts of his business.

”When you like what you do, you care about what you do.”

Lisa Rosetta can be reached at 541-617-7812 or lrosetta@bendbulletin.com.