Sergison Bates architects: influences, peers and legacy

Every connection with its receipt

Sergison Bates built a practice out of the ordinary: brick, render, tile and the overlooked typologies of the English street, raised to the level of serious architecture. Their map runs from the Smithsons' "as found" ethic through northern European sobriety — Lewerentz, Tessenow — to the London scene of Caruso St John and Tony Fretton that shared their reading of construction as culture. It ends with the generation of British housing architects they taught and licensed.

The Kynda mix for Sergison Bates architects

• Key Influence · Upper Lawn Pavilion by Alison and Peter Smithson (1962). The Smithsons' "as found" sensibility — building with the ordinary, the already-there, the unglamorous material — is the single deepest current in Sergison Bates's work. Upper Lawn, grafted onto an existing Wiltshire wall, models exactly their method: new fabric negotiating with inherited construction. Sergison and Bates have written and lectured repeatedly on the Smithsons, and their essays on everyday building restate that inheritance in Thatcher-era suburban terms.→
• Influencia Obscura · St Petri Church, Klippan by Sigurd Lewerentz (1966). Lewerentz's late brickwork — dark, rough-laid, wide-jointed, lit by frugal openings — is the Nordic undercurrent in Sergison Bates's masonry and in their attention to joints, thresholds and the behaviour of surfaces over time. Klippan is a touchstone for the whole British group around them, prized for proving that ordinary brick and glass held in silicone can carry enormous atmospheric weight.
• Local Roots · New Art Gallery Walsall by Caruso St John (2000). Caruso St John emerged from the same London milieu at the same moment, sharing interests in material surface, pattern and construction history, and Adam Caruso taught alongside Sergison and Bates in the UK and Switzerland. Walsall's terracotta-clad tower, built for a provincial town rather than a capital, defines the shared project of that generation: civic seriousness from unassuming means.
• Beyond the Medium · Framework Houses by Bernd and Hilla Becher (1977). The Bechers' deadpan typological surveys of half-timbered workers' houses in the Siegen industrial region treat vernacular dwellings as a serious comparative subject — the same move Sergison Bates make with the British semi. Their photographic method, repetition, frontality, no drama, mirrors the practice's analytical approach to ordinary typology and the documentary register of their own published studies.
• Peer · Coin Street Housing by Maccreanor Lavington (2001). Maccreanor Lavington worked the same London–Netherlands axis in the same years, winning early recognition for urban housing that took the block, the street and the brick facade as its subject. Their parallel careers of practice plus teaching, and a shared conviction that housing is the discipline's real test, make them the closest contemporaries to Sergison Bates's project.
• From the Canon · Pair of semi-detached houses, Stevenage by Sergison Bates architects (2000). The founding statement: two houses in a Hertfordshire new town that take the most derided British typology and rebuild it with concrete block, timber boarding and exacting proportion. Completed in their first years of practice, it fixed the themes the office has pursued since — ordinary form treated with extraordinary care — and made the practice's reputation well beyond its tiny budget and scale.
• Key Collaborator · Red House, Chelsea by Tony Fretton (2001). Fretton employed Stephen Bates before the practice began and remained the generation's presiding figure through teaching at the AA and Delft. Red House — a red stone townhouse with a composed, almost palatial street elevation on a tight London plot — showcases the attitude to facade, proportion and urban manners that the younger office absorbed and then applied across hundreds of dwellings.
• Legacy · Goldsmith Street, Norwich by Mikhail Riches (2019). The Stirling Prize-winning council housing scheme is the clearest fruit of the tendency Sergison Bates established: terraced streets, brick, pitched roofs, ordinary typology handled with rigour and ambition for public housing. A generation of British housing architects, trained in the schools where Sergison and Bates taught, took from them the licence to find the street more interesting than the icon.

What influenced Sergison Bates architects

• Peter Smithson. The article describes the Smithsons’ work as an identity-defining interest for the practice. (also via Upper Lawn Pavilion) “Alongside their identity-defining interest in the work of the Smithsons, both their buildings and writings, [ 15 ] and in "images of ordinary typologies",” (Wikipedia)
• Heinrich Tessenow. The article reports the architects’ own statement about Tessenow’s relevance to their approach. (also via Festspielhaus Hellerau) “The architects have additionally stated that the work and ideas of Heinrich Tessenow resonate with their approach to architecture.” (Wikipedia)
• Alison Smithson. The article describes the Smithsons’ work as an identity-defining interest for the practice. “Alongside their identity-defining interest in the work of the Smithsons, both their buildings and writings, [ 15 ] and in "images of ordinary typologies",” (Wikipedia)
• Hardwick Hall. Hardwick Hall is named as a building that informs the practice’s work. “the work of Sergison Bates is also informed by English classicism, exemplified in their fascination with Hardwick Hall .” (Wikipedia)
• The Craftsman by Richard Sennett (2008). The Craftsman (Richard Sennett) — culture for Sergison Bates architects (openlibrary.org)
• Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture by Robert Venturi. Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (Robert Venturi) — titan for Sergison Bates architects (openlibrary.org)
• Framework Houses by Bernd and Hilla Becher (1977). Framework Houses (Bernd and Hilla Becher) — culture for Sergison Bates architects (wikidata.org)
• The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard (1958). The Poetics of Space (Gaston Bachelard) — culture for Sergison Bates architects (openlibrary.org)
• Upper Lawn Pavilion by Alison and Peter Smithson (1962). Upper Lawn Pavilion (Alison and Peter Smithson) — titan for Sergison Bates architects
• St Petri Church, Klippan by Sigurd Lewerentz (1966). St Petri Church, Klippan (Sigurd Lewerentz) — ghost for Sergison Bates architects
• Lisson Gallery by Tony Fretton (1992). Lisson Gallery (Tony Fretton) — titan for Sergison Bates architects
• Festspielhaus Hellerau by Heinrich Tessenow (1911). Festspielhaus Hellerau (Heinrich Tessenow) — ghost for Sergison Bates architects

Peers and kindred spirits

• Adam Levene. The practice collaborated with Adam Levene on an exhibition stand. “D&AD Award 2000 (FSB exhibition stand at Spectrum Product Fair, Earls Court, London in collaboration with Adam Levene)” (Wikipedia)
• Stephen Bates. Stephen Bates co-founded the practice. “The practice was founded in 1996 in London by Jonathan Sergison (born 1964) and Stephen Bates (born 1964).” (Wikipedia)
• Jonathan Sergison. Jonathan Sergison co-founded the practice. “The practice was founded in 1996 in London by Jonathan Sergison (born 1964) and Stephen Bates (born 1964).” (Wikipedia)
• Mark Tuff. Mark Tuff became a partner in the practice. “Their long-standing collaborator Mark Tuff has been a partner since 2006.” (Wikipedia)
• Red House, Chelsea by Tony Fretton (2001). Red House, Chelsea (Tony Fretton) — collaborator for Sergison Bates architects
• Market Hall, Ghent by Robbrecht en Daem (2012). Market Hall, Ghent (Robbrecht en Daem) — peer for Sergison Bates architects
• Coin Street Housing by Maccreanor Lavington (2001). Coin Street Housing (Maccreanor Lavington) — peer for Sergison Bates architects
• Walmer Yard by Peter Salter (2016). Walmer Yard (Peter Salter) — geography for Sergison Bates architects
• Neues Museum, Berlin by David Chipperfield Architects (2009). Neues Museum, Berlin (David Chipperfield Architects) — collaborator for Sergison Bates architects
• Composing Space: The Photographs of Hélène Binet by Hélène Binet (2012). Composing Space: The Photographs of Hélène Binet (Hélène Binet) — collaborator for Sergison Bates architects
• New Art Gallery Walsall by Caruso St John (2000). New Art Gallery Walsall (Caruso St John) — geography for Sergison Bates architects
• Royal Court Theatre refurbishment by Haworth Tompkins (2000). Royal Court Theatre refurbishment (Haworth Tompkins) — geography for Sergison Bates architects
• South London Gallery extension by 6a architects (2010). South London Gallery extension (6a architects) — peer for Sergison Bates architects

Who Sergison Bates architects influenced

• Strange House by Hugh Strange Architects (2015). Strange House (Hugh Strange Architects) — legacy for Sergison Bates architects
• Goldsmith Street, Norwich by Mikhail Riches (2019). Goldsmith Street, Norwich (Mikhail Riches) — legacy for Sergison Bates architects