Serge Chermayeff was born to a prosperous Jewish family in Grozny, Chechnya (then part of the Russian Empire) in 1900, attending boarding schools in England from the age of ten. Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, he furthered his fine art training across Europe, settling in England in 1925. Despite no formal architectural training, he opened his own design firm in 1930. Together with German architect Erich Mendelsohn, Chermayeff would design some of the first and most prominent Modernist public buildings in Britain, the most famous of which was the de la Warr Pavilion at Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex (1935).
Architect Serge Chermayeff was born Sergei Ivanovich Issakovich on 8 October 1900 to a prosperous Jewish family in Grozny, Chechnya, then part of the Russian Empire. From the age of ten he was sent to board in England, firstly at Peterborough Lodge Preparatory School and then at Harrow School. The Russian Revolution of 1917 saw the Chermayeff family funds liquidated. Unable to accept his position at the University of Cambridge, Chermayeff supported himself by working as a ballroom dancer and a reporter, and furthered his fine art training at art schools in Germany, Austria, The Netherlands, and France.
From 1925 to 1927 Chermayeff worked as Chief Designer at the company E. Williams. He became a British citizen in 1928, the same year he began working in the interior design department at noted furniture manufacturer, Waring and Gillow. The simple lines of continental modern rooms had not yet become part of English taste, but Chermayeff tempered modernism for England, designing harmonious and quietly comfortable rooms with careful layout, veneered furniture and abstract rugs. The exhibition Modern Art in French and English Furniture and Decoration(1928–9) which occupied a whole floor of the firm's Oxford Street premises, with furniture and textiles designed by Chermayeff and his staff, proved to be extremely successful. Despite no formal architectural training or certification, Chermayeff opened his own design firm in 1930. In the same year he joined the Twentieth Century Group, established in 1930 by Wells Coates, with whom he collaborated, alongside Raymond McGrath, in the interior design of the new BBC studios in Portland Place in central London (1931–32). Together with German architect Erich Mendelsohn, who arrived in London in 1933 fleeing Nazism, Chermayeff designed some of the first and most prominent Modernist public buildings in Britain. In 1934 the duo won the competition for a pavilion at Bexhill-on-Sea, in Sussex, named after Earl de la Warr and occupying a site adjoining the Metropole Hotel. The pavilion was to be the first large-scale, welded steel-framed building in England, both technically and socially advanced. The steel frame of the structure gave lightness and strength to the building, as well as saving costs. The walls were infillings of concrete and glass, with their outer skin finished with coarse-textured, cream-coloured cement rendering, divided up into panels by vertically recessed expansion joints in chocolate brown. The Observer defined it as ‘a work of genius’ (The Observer 1935, p. 10) and The Manchester Guardian noted that ‘It is safe to say that no such simple and elegant structure, none so novel in its straightforwardness and efficiency, has before been put up here as a pleasure pavilion’ (The Manchester Guardian 1935, p. 9). During the Second World War, the building was commandeered by the military and suffered some damage during air raids. In 2005, it underwent extensive restoration and was reopened as a centre of contemporary arts, becoming one of the largest galleries on the south coast. Mendelsohn and Chermayeff's first model for Bexhill is now held in the Architecture Gallery at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
Other pioneering buildings designed with Mendelsohn included Cohen House in London (1935–36) and Shrubs Wood in Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire (1933–35). The partnership between Mendelsohn and Chermayeff was dissolved in October 1936, with Chermayeff continuing to practise at 173 Oxford Street in London. Among the many buildings Chermayeff designed were Shann House, Rugby (1934); the headquarters and factory complex of Gilbey’s Gin in Camden, London (1937); Gilbey House, Oval Road, Camden Town (1937), and the new research laboratories at Blackley, Manchester, for the dyestuffs division of ICI (1938). He also designed and built his family home, Bentley Wood, in Sussex. Chermayeff was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects and was a member of the Modern Architectural Research Group (MARS), whose wide-ranging and progressive membership included Mary and Paul Abbatt.
In 1940 Chermayeff moved to the USA and settled on the Massachusetts Cape. He held teaching positions at several universities: Professor at the California School of Fine Arts (1940-1941), President of the Institute of Design Chicago (1946-1951) (succeeding Laszlo Moholy-Nagy), and lecturer roles at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1951-1952), Harvard University (1953-1962) and Yale University (1962-1971). He championed the study of environmental and biological influences on architectural design and wrote several books while teaching. He established several architectural societies, including the American Society of Planners and Architects. Chermayeff’s sons Ivan and Peter became notable architects and designers in their own right. Serge Chermayeff died in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, USA, in 1996. His drawings and designs can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, USA. He donated his archive to Columbia University, New York, USA. In the UK public domain a number of his designs and products are held in the collection of the V&A, London.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Serge Chermayeff]
Publications related to [Serge Chermayeff] in the Ben Uri Library