PHL: Luxury Touch

Luxury Touch

Much more than just switches. Pushing customisation and functionality to brave new heights to broaden the scope of domotics, PLH, creative Italian bespoke switch and keypad company, is on a roll

by Marta Bernasconi

In high end residences and megayachts, where perfection comes as standard, details often take on a starring role. Italian company PLH has turned designing and producing lighting and control plates and keypads into a decorative art with absolute personalisation a forgone conclusion. Founded in the early 2000s, the PLH brand grew out of an already well-established electronics and computerisation business as boss Enrico Corelli realised that domotics equipment and tools had a role to play as a décor elements in their own right. Taking its lead from specific signatures such as using solid metal (aluminium, steel, brass, copper), wood and DuPontTM Corian® instead of plastic and a stylistic appeal that endured the winds of fashion, PLH have produced increasingly multifaceted designs that have broadened the scope of lighting design and domotics into an entirely new realm. The bespoke nature of the products inspired the production process and offers an endless array of forms and materials, textures and finishes. As Corelli explains: “Even though for many, making one-off pieces would be absurd, it is becoming routine for us. A normality that allows us to meet the requirements of highly discerning architects and commissioners who see the added emotional as well as aesthetic value in our custom product”. All of PLH’s collections, be they wired or wireless, can also be laser or plotter-personalised and given superior hand-finishes – satin, polished, micro-sanded to name but a few. This guarantees the ultimate in exclusivity and ticks all the boxes for the luxury nautical sector. In fact, the company already works with several different high-end yards, including the Ferretti Group, Sanlorenzo, Baltic Yachts and Mazu. Its Slim and Neo collections are particularly popular with yacht

Left, the Slim collection of plates incorporating different functionalities, finishes and materials This page, Sanlorenzo’s SX112 maxiyacht with interiors by Piero Lissoni who used the Slim and Slim Custom collections (and MakeUp for plugs)

questions to Enrico Corelli

CEO of PLH

What makes PLH’s plates different from others on the market?

We offer a bespoke service. We don’t just create a cover: we create actual PUIs - Physical User Interfaces – that allow users to control items and function in an analogue way which gives significant emotional feedback each and every time.

Control plates and keypads and and domotics: how well can we now interact with our living environment at the touch of a button?

Unfortunately, domotics has been used like a traditional system for quite some time. The keypads themselves are often single rather than grouped together, and for example, don’t track users’ requirements over the course of the day by adapting the service to the time or place. Just think about wireless control. Many sector operators and producers see them as regulator wall-mounted switches that just happen to be wireless. Wireless control keypads and remotes should be portable or transportable and change their purpose depending on where and how it is used, as the case with our Neo Lighter.

How far does personalisation go and can you give us any examples of particularly impressive bespoke applications?

There are no limits. Because we don’t use moulds and instead produce sheets of materials using 3 or 5 axis numerical control machines, we can do anything the client or architect wants. We have built up finish and treatment skills that definitely put us at the very top of the pile of custom companies. Inserting silk fabric by Rubelli and Antolini marble were our most stimulating projects because they were technically complex. We get asked to do things like slicing marble into 1mm thicknesses, cutting silk without it fraying and reusing antique wood and setting them into the controls on a fairly regular basis.

What are the main differences functionality and materials-wise between residential plates and nautical ones?

For the yachting sector, there is much more of a focus on using suitable materials and components. So we prefer to supply products with a stainless steel base i.e. well-protected electronics. We bring our naval experience to the residential sector too to guarantee a tougher, more hardwearing result.

PLH’s products are hugely popular with designers and leading yards in the luxury yachting sector, particularly customised versions of the Slim and Neo collections. Photo, the Sanlorenzo SX112 megayacht

designers as well, of course, as full custom pieces. Enrico Corelli explained the business’s latest technological and aesthetic achievements: “Integrating A and C USB modules with the products is one of our latest additions. Charging at beside table height has become a necessity these days. We are also developing two other projects that will broaden the integration of our plates with other systems. However, given tbe attention our products are attracting from producers and the serial copying that goes on in Italy, we are keeping them under wraps until the next Salone del Mobile,” he smiled. plhitalia.com