Sekisui House, Camden Hills

Established in 1960, Sekisui House is Japan’s leading community developer and largest builder of
pre-fabricated sustainable housing. With over 2 million houses to their name, Sekisui House has built an illustrious reputation for their beautifully designed homes, their use of innovative technologies, precise building techniques, and awarding winning eco-friendly houses.

In August 2010, Sekisui House acquired AV Jennings’ contract housing division, and continues to use the AV Jennings brand name under licence.

Sekisui Houses’ Camden Hills Community Development, located 60 km south-west of Sydney’s CDB, will offer quality green homes in a spectacular golf course precinct. The Camden Hills development will showcase 1,200 new eco-friendly Sekisui House homes, four public schools, a public high school and an integrated health care centre set on approximately 207.5 hectares of land.

Sekisui House has undertaken considerable research into building physics, insulation and technology to improve residential indoor air quality.

In Japan, the use of breather membranes on the outside of the frame has been standard practice since the 1990s.

Typical perforated foils found in Australia are only 1/50th of the minimum level of breathability required in by the Japanese  standard for construction in similar climates. There are products labelled as "breather" on the market that claim to be vapour permeable that anywhere else in the world would be considered vapour barriers. The climate may vary from location to location but the building physics are universal. Sekisui House specified ProctorWrap High Perm (HP) breathable membrane to be installed on the cold (exterior) side of the wall insulation.

ProctorWrap HP has been developed primarily for use on timber or steel frame construction, affording effective protection against wind-driven rain, snow and dust. These highly durable, strong and lightweight membranes are quiet when exposed to wind and will continue to protect the building envelope for the life of the building.

Unlike perforated foil sarkings, ProctorWrap HP membranes allow for the controlled escape of vapour from within the building whilst restricting the ingress of moisture, thus helping to protect the building fabric and insulation from condensation and related problems such as mould, timber rot, corrosion and loss of thermal resistance.