THE MANGAWHAI DUNE HOUSE
Photos Simon Devitt
There are houses that impose themselves on the land - and then there are houses like this: a slab of red brick and quiet conviction, settled into the Mangawhai dunes like a memory unearthed, shaped not in defiance of its surroundings but in deep conversation with them.
Designed by Nicholas Dunning of OTO Group Architecture, the house began not as a drawing but as a memory: years of holidays pitched in canvas, sand underfoot, and ocean wind seeping into sleep. When his parents decided to retire here, Nicholas, armed with the quiet precision of Danish modernism and the sweat-earned knowledge of New Zealand’s coastal wilds, started sketching something that might resemble permanence.
This wasn’t just a house. It was a culmination. Dunning had spent time in Denmark - not just as a tourist but as a draftsman of form and proportion - working under the ghostly weight of Jacobsen and Utzon. He returned to New Zealand eager to integrate the Danish design principles he had trained in, centralising site-specific architecture and high quality craftsmanship.
It’s a dramatic reveal, from the road. You barely see it at first. Then it appears: a brick form rising alongside the surrounding dunes. Two great curved walls beckon and repel, a gesture at once ancient and unapologetically modern. And there it is: a cedar door, flush with the brick, no visible frame, just an invitation to enter or walk away.
Inside, the compression enfolds. Brick underfoot. Brick on both sides. It’s a moment, an arrival, before the house draws you to the horizon. Glass. Dunes. Sky. Space. The full theatrical release.
Danish design fingerprints are everywhere, but subtly so. No dramatic gestures, no precious quirks. This is a design that knows itself. Honest materials. Functional form. You feel it in the brick; raw, curved, grounded. You feel it in the travertine, warm and light, drifting into the sand outside. You feel it in the proportions; human, not heroic.
The house is shaped like an L. Not for style, but for shelter. The courtyard at the centre is private, sun-soaked, a soft echo of a Mediterranean holiday on a New Zealand afternoon. The pool hugs the building, close enough to ripple light onto the ceiling, to blur the line between sculpture and utility.
Inside, spaces split and rejoin like thoughts. The kitchen is all clean function; walnut, stainless steel, no wasted space. The main living area is wide-open, glass-wrapped, dune-facing. And then there’s the lounge, tucked like a secret behind a curve of brick; quiet, intimate, vaguely monastic. In summer, it’s a place to hide from heat. In winter, it huddles around firelight.
There’s nothing ostentatious here, nothing screaming to be seen. This is architecture that listens. The elevations are what they are because the interior demanded it. It’s that rare humility in design, a house that lets itself be shaped by life, not ego.
This is the design language of OTO Group Architecture - grounded, responsive, and attuned to people and place. Every project begins with listening: to the client, the land, and the unique character of a site. With no preconceived outcomes, their work unfolds from the ground up, never imposed.
In a world of templates and trends, this Mangawhai home is a quiet assertion that meaningful architecture starts with humility and attention. When done right, the result isn’t just a house - it’s a place that could exist nowhere else.
www.OTOGroup.nz | nick@OTOGroup.nz
