Team Green Architects

Team Green Architects Architects who are passionate about energy efficient buildings.

23/06/2026

Passive House gets used as a buzzword a lot. It’s worth being clear about what it actually means.

It’s a building standard — the most rigorous energy performance standard in use anywhere in the world. To meet it, a building has to maintain comfortable temperatures without active heating or cooling for most of the year, using a fraction of the energy of a standard NZ home.

It’s not about technology. It’s about design. The right orientation, a well-insulated and airtight envelope, good windows in the right places, mechanical ventilation that brings fresh air in without losing the heat.

The result is a home that’s comfortable in every room, every season, and costs very little to run.

There are a few hundred certified Passive House buildings in New Zealand. We’ve designed several of them.

Happy to answer questions in the comments.

highperformancehomes energyefficiency queenstownarchitect buildingperformance warmhomes nzarchitecture architecture

23/06/2026

It’s -3°C outside.

The wheelbarrow is full of ice. The car windows are frozen solid.

But inside it’s 24°C.

We haven’t had to get up and light a fire or make the heat pump run full blast. We have three small 500W heaters across the house that switch on if the temperature drops below 25°C.

Even on the coldest days of winter, I know our electricity bill will be under $300 per month, including running our architecture office and server from home.

This is why I am so passionate about designing the way we do. Everyone deserves to live in a home that is this comfortable, healthy and affordable to run all year round.

What still surprises me is that most high-end homes are not designed this way. And that our building code still allows homes to be built that are cold, draughty and expensive to heat.

We know how to do better. The technology exists. The knowledge exists. Better buildings should be the norm, not the exception.

queenstown arrowtown sustainablearchitecture healthyhomes buildingbetter teamgreenarchitects

What’s on the drawing table at the moment.This sketch is for two homes on a site that was originally planned for one.Urb...
22/06/2026

What’s on the drawing table at the moment.

This sketch is for two homes on a site that was originally planned for one.

Urban infill is something I feel strongly about. As our towns grow, I think we need to make better use of the neighbourhoods and infrastructure we already have, rather than continuing to spread into our beautiful countryside.

The key is doing it well.

Good urban infill isn’t about squeezing as many houses as possible onto a site. It’s about thoughtful design. In this case, both homes have good sun, private outdoor space and enough room for family life, all within walking distance of shops and local amenities.

Done carefully, projects like this can create more housing while still being great places to live.

Winter light in Central Otago. The sun sits low all day and the shadows are long from early afternoon. And often it gets...
19/06/2026

Winter light in Central Otago. The sun sits low all day and the shadows are long from early afternoon. And often it gets really cold!

It's also when you notice which buildings are working. Which ones hold their warmth, which ones are losing it. Which orientation decisions were right.

We design for all four seasons here, but winter is where it shows.

17/06/2026

You Don’t Always Need a New House
Sometimes You Need the Right Upgrade

This home in Glenorchy started life as a below-standard NZ house.

Today it is being transformed through a deep retrofit and has been modelled to achieve Passive House Low Energy standard.

The upgrade includes triple glazing, a comprehensive insulation upgrade, improved airtightness, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, external shading, solar panels and batteries. The home will also be fully electric.

Retrofitting an existing home to this level is often more challenging than building new. You’re working with an existing structure, existing constraints, and many unknowns hidden within the building.

But sometimes this is some of the most important work we do.

There are thousands of homes across New Zealand that are cold, draughty and expensive to heat. Many don’t need replacing. They need the right upgrade.

We’re looking forward to sharing more of this project as construction progresses.

Thanks to for the ventilation system and for helping us achieve a high-performance airtight building envelope.

glenorchy energyefficienthomes buildingbetter teamgreenarchitects

The first question in most new client meetings is some version of: how much more does this cost?For Passive House, the h...
15/06/2026

The first question in most new client meetings is some version of: how much more does this cost?

For Passive House, the honest answer is around 3-8% more upfront, depending on the project. That’s real money.

What’s less often asked is what it costs to run a standard NZ home in the Queenstown basin for 30 years. Because that number is also real money. Heating bills of $4,000-$6,000 a year aren’t uncommon in poorly performing homes here.

One of the reasons we undertake energy modelling is that it allows us to look beyond upfront cost alone. We can test different design decisions and understand their impact on future comfort, energy use and running costs.

Sometimes a small increase in construction cost can deliver a significant improvement in performance. Sometimes it doesn’t. The value is in being able to make informed decisions based on real data rather than assumptions.

We don’t push Passive House on every client. But we do try to make sure the conversation includes both sides of the ledger. The upfront cost is easy to see. The lifetime cost takes a bit more work to find.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗻𝗼𝘄.Currently on the drawing board - this is not how we typically do our concept plans - but it seemed appropr...
12/06/2026

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗻𝗼𝘄.

Currently on the drawing board - this is not how we typically do our concept plans - but it seemed appropriate for this job! And quite a fun way to do it.....this new design for a courtyard house will be shared soon. So keep watch!

𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘄 𝗕𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗧𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆Outdoor dining or relaxing by the fire in the mid winter at the Mountain View Road property we comple...
11/06/2026

𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘄 𝗕𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗧𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆

Outdoor dining or relaxing by the fire in the mid winter at the Mountain View Road property we completed last year! Coronet peak in the background, and just out of view a spa pool with a view!

Photos by


09/06/2026

Winter in a Cold House vs Winter in a Passive House

I’ve had this conversation a lot lately.

“The house is colder inside than it is outside.”

I hear this surprisingly often around Queenstown at this time of year.

When you stop and think about it, it’s a bit crazy. We spend hundreds of thousands, and often millions, building a house, yet many people still find themselves sitting inside feeling cold all winter.

The problem usually isn’t the heating system.

Most NZ homes are designed to be heated, rather than designed to stay warm.

A Passive House takes a different approach. The building itself does most of the work, keeping the warmth in and the cold out, so you don’t have to rely on heating just to feel comfortable.

These photos are some lived-in winter images from our previous house, which was often colder on the inside than it was outside. Alongside them are images from our current home, a Passive House that stays continuously warm throughout winter.

The difference isn’t how much heating we use. It’s how the buildings perform.

If your house is feeling cold this winter, it’s worth asking why.

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Mid-winter is when buildings show you exactly how they're performing.The rooms that never quite warm up. The windows tha...
08/06/2026

Mid-winter is when buildings show you exactly how they're performing.

The rooms that never quite warm up. The windows that run with condensation overnight. The floors you avoid in bare feet until midday.

In a Passive House it's different — not dramatically so from the outside, but different to live in. The temperature is consistent room to room. There's no cold from the windows. The floor is the same temperature as the air.

These are things you feel rather than measure. But they're the result of decisions made at design stage — orientation, insulation, airtightness, windows.

Winter is a good time to pay attention to how your building is actually performing.

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