VELUX Modular Skylights make a horse barn and arena fresh, healthy spaces for horses at rest or play

Winter Farms is a private horse farm in Utah, located in a picturesque valley with a meandering river surrounded by foothills and an idyllic view of mountains. The barn and arena were designed to create healthy environments for both horses and their handlers by providing ample natural light and ventilation from VELUX Modular Skylight (VMS) systems.

Ventilation is important in horse barns and arenas to protect the health of the horses and even the handlers working with them. Supplying fresh air to rid the structures of odor, moisture and bacteria, in addition to regulating the indoor climate, is crucial to horse health. The owners were in need of a proper ventilating skylight system that was both cost-effective and could be installed quickly and easily.

The 21,000-square-foot arena includes 130 standard size VMS units in the Longlight configuration, and the 7,500-square-foot barn has 70 standard and custom VMS units in the Ridgelight configuration. Using VMS helped the project stay on time and on budget because it eliminates the need for worksite caulking, puttying, welding, soldering or glass cutting, processes that can be weather dependent.

The arena is long and wide, so getting natural light into the middle was a challenge. The VMS Longlight fills the middle of the space with daylight and fresh air, giving horses and their riders a pleasant indoor space to practice dressage and jumping. The skylights are anchored at the ridge onto an I-beam structure at a 7.4-degree roof slope with 20 venting skylights that open to provide airflow.

The barn has 70 standard and custom skylight modules in the Ridgelight configuration, 14 of which are venting. This configuration is made of two symmetrical rows of self-supporting skylights that create a light and open interior.

Both skylight systems include a high wind velocity and rain sensor package that will close the skylights if it senses climatic weather change, and the system has HVAC system integration capabilities for automatic climate control. The glass is tempered over laminated with an argon gas infill with loE3 safety glazing for added fall protection.

“It’s a fully controllable system for not only bringing in daylight where they don’t need to use any power whatsoever to light the building, but also for ventilation,” said Tom Nafus, VELUX sales representative.

VELUX was involved early in the design process and worked with both the architect and general contractor on configurations.

The skylights originally specified for the project were not VELUX, but the general contractor, Michael Keim, had plenty of experience with the brand. The original design for skylights called for an on-site glazed skylight, which takes longer to install. The prefabricated VMS system features a plug-and-play installation method that doesn’t require on-site fabrication.

After learning more about VMS, Keim updated the barn’s design, removing some unnecessary structural elements to expose the Ridgelight on the interior.

“Standing in the barn and seeing sunlight on the natural wood interior is just beautiful,” Keim said.

Barn installation took a week, requiring four people, a scissor lift inside and forklift outside. The arena installation took slightly longer due simply to the fact that there were more units.

“It went very fast, and it went very clean,” Nafus said.

Both the arena and barn were transformed into functional yet strikingly beautiful structures that also provide healthy living and exercise spaces for the horses.

“The skylights bring out the true natural color of the wood,” Nafus said. “The wood is a natural high gloss look throughout the whole structure. It’s just an incredible building.”