Above Brna Bay, a Villa Built to Be Looked At
6/25/2026 · 2 min read
Korčula has no shortage of beautiful houses. It has very few that architects write about.
Platinum Villa is one of the exceptions. Set into a sloping hillside above the quiet waters of Brna Bay, the villa was designed by architect Igor Franić, and it shows. This is not a holiday house dressed up for a brochure. It is a restrained, deliberate piece of contemporary Croatian architecture, the kind that ends up in design journals rather than just listing portals, and the kind that makes the sea below feel like a single, considered part of a larger composition rather than a view bolted on afterwards.
The architecture
The form is horizontal, low, and confident. Terraces stack and step with the hillside rather than fighting it. Cantilevered canopies throw shade exactly where it is needed. Glass openings are controlled, not maximal, framing the bay rather than simply facing it. From above, the villa reads as sculpture as much as shelter.
Inside, the same restraint continues at a different scale entirely. The open-plan living space rises to around six metres, full-height glazing pulling the pool and terrace directly into the room. Four bedrooms, each en-suite, are split across two wings via twin designer staircases, an arrangement that gives every guest equal privacy rather than the usual hierarchy of a "best" room and the rest. Each has its own bathroom, each its own private terrace.
The setting
Roughly 120 square metres of outdoor space is organised with the same care as the interior, a pool zone, a separate dining terrace, sun terraces, planted edges softening the transitions between them. The sea is 80 metres away. The materials throughout, wood-aluminium joinery, full climate control, underfloor heating, 75x150cm Italian ceramics, magnetic-track lighting, an integrated tablet management system, are a clear step above typical villa specification on the island.
The opportunity
Platinum Villa is currently unfurnished, a blank, architecturally complete canvas rather than an unfinished project. For a buyer thinking beyond personal use, that is the interesting part. The villa's combination of architectural authorship, existing media coverage and a layout built around four equal, privacy-conscious suites makes it a genuinely strong candidate for premium short-stay positioning, the kind of property that fits naturally into luxury villa rental brands, concierge channels and direct high-end booking rather than the standard holiday-let model.
There is also a longer view worth noting. A planned airport zone in the Brna–Smokvica corridor, if it proceeds, would meaningfully change Korčula's accessibility, and with it, the strength of its premium rental market.
The villa is offered by the same owner behind one of Croatia's most recognised contemporary builds, Diamond Villa Korčula, a name that will be familiar to anyone who follows architecture on the island.
Interior images showing furnished spaces are AI-generated visualisations for reference. Price excludes 25% VAT, deductible where purchased through a Croatian d.o.o.
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