Christoph Behling

Biography

Behling was born in 1970 in Geneva, Switzerland and raised in Germany. He completed a diploma in Industrial Design in 1995 at the Art Academy in Stuttgart, where he studied under Richard Sapper, before relocating first to Tokyo, then to London, where he has been based since 1998.

Career

Behling spent his formative years in a number of design practices in Tokyo and London. In 2004 he founded both Christoph Behling Design and SolarLab Research & Design. He taught on the Design Products course at the Royal College of Art in London from 2005 to 2009 and is curator of the annual Sustain Exhibition at the RCA.

In 2006 Behling launched his Serpentine SolarShuttle, a solar-powered boat boat was can feed unused electricity back into the national grid. This project attracted attention and won various design awards.

In parallel to his work on SolarLab, Behling has worked as a product designer, across a variety of industries, including communication technology, fashion, luxury goods, watches, water sanitation and transport.

He has been the lead designer for TAG Heuer since 2004. About watches, Behling has said "If you look at a watch, it's locally produced, with a minimum amount of resources, can be repaired anywhere around the world, doesn't use a battery but instead uses waste energy from your body, and has a value that increases rather than decreases. You will find it difficult to find a product that is as sustainable."

Since 2007 he has also worked as the creative director of the Atelier Group [1], a Paris-based mobile telecommunications communications company, responsible for the design of the TAG Heuer luxury phones: Meridiist, Racer and Link, Modelabs’ Levi’s phone and the concept for the 'My Dior' phone.

Behling collaborates with Geberit [2], a European sanitary manufacturer, with whom he works to reduce water consumption in homes.

Exhibitions

Awards

Product Design

SolarLab Research + Design