Paul Boissevain was born in Hilversum, Netherlands on 19 December 1922. By the late 1940s he had moved to the UK. It is unclear where he trained as an architect. He did not join the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). In 1947 he married fellow architect Barbara Joan Osmond (1922-2010) in England and later that year they moved to Dublin where they established an architectural practice, Boissevain & Osmond. Three years later they relocated the practice to London. At the same time Boissevain took up a teaching post at the Architectural Association.
Two of his elder brother, Walter Boissevain and Roland Boissevain ran Merchant Adventurers Limited in Feltham, Essex, and, from the 1950s, Paul Boissevain designed ligting for them. He designed a floor lamp which was exhibited at the 1954 Milan Triennale. His ‘Trimline wall and ceiling light won a Council of Industrial Design award in 1968, and a pendant light fitting (Ringline series. 1100 CP 2) received an iF Product Design Award in 1972 from Industrie Forum Design Hannover.
Boissevain was a Member of the Society of Industrial Artists and Designers (MSIAD). He lived in Epsom, Surrey and in Walton-on-the-Hill, Surrey. The house designed by Paul Boissevain and his wife, Barbara Osmond in Walton-on-the-Hill is discussed in 'House & Garden' March 1959 (pp.96-99)
Although Boissevain lived and worked in England for most of his career, he retained his Dutch nationality. He died in September 2014