U.S. glass-manufacturing company View announced its Smart Windows are being installed at the brand-new Martire Family Arena at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut.
The venue will be the future home of Sacred Heart?s men?s and women?s NCAA Division I hockey programs, club hockey programs and the university?s skating team.
View noted that an important component of the project included increased natural light throughout the rink, but designers were concerned that heat through the windows would melt the ice. To solve this issue, the facility installed View smart windows, which automatically adjust in response to the sun. Based on an electrochromic coating and driven by artificial intelligence, View Smart Windows provide continuous access to natural light and views, while controlling heat and glare, the company said.
?Skating arenas rarely have windows, but we?re building a venue unlike any other,? said Marc Izzo, vice president of construction and facilities management at Sacred Heart University. ?Incorporating View smart windows throughout our extraordinary ice-skating facility will give players, students and guests a completely new and cutting-edge experience.?
View smart windows reduce building energy consumption from HVAC and lighting by as much as 20% and provide significant health benefits to building occupants, according to the company. In a recent study, people working behind View Smart Windows experienced half as many headaches, slept 37 minutes longer each night, and performed 42% better on cognitive tests.
?The opportunity to transform educational and athletic facilities to improve both sustainability and student wellbeing is massive,? adds Brian Klansky, regional vice president at View. ?We?re thrilled to partner with Sacred Heart to integrate wellness and sustainability into the entire student experience.?
Earlier this year, View announced the acquisition of IoTium, a provider of cloud-managed, software-defined IoT networks.
IoTium? solutions enable building owners to achieve enterprise-grade security, reduce operating costs, and gain real-time visibility into their entire real estate portfolios, View said.
View had previously highlighted that real estate owners recognize the need to make their existing buildings secure and smart but they face several challenges to upgrade legacy networks. The firm said that IoTium solves this challenge, as the company?s edge-cloud solution works with both new and existing operations technology (OT) networks and also reduces operational costs by virtually eliminating on-site service visits.
View is installed and designed into 92 million square feet of buildings including offices, hospitals, airports, educational facilities, hotels and multi-family residences.
