I see that the Ranelagh multi-denominational school in Dublin 6 has won the Downes Medal, a very prestigious award in the world of Irish architecture.

There is no doubt that the school is a striking building. It is also an extremely ugly building.

Yes, yes, matter of opinion and all that, beauty in the eye of the beholder and sure that fellow knows nothing about architecture, visually illiterate, probably thinks Liberty Hall and Hawkins House are grand altogether, should stick to the oul' journalism.

I will have my say all the same, thank you. I pass the building often enough after all, and it is not as if it is hidden away in some corner.

In his recent report on the AAI Awards exhibition, our Environment Correspondent, Frank McDonald, refrained from direct comment on the aesthetics of the school, but did say that its rear elevation (fronting onto Mount pleasant Square) is "much less sombre" than its frontage.

To say that the frontage is "sombre" would be an understatement. It is not far off being downright scary. What hits the passerby on the busy Ranelagh Road is an awful lot of bricks, right in the eyes, plus a lot of sharp angles and an entrance like a reinforced sentry-box. What it reminds some people of is a very sombre building indeed, namely Wheatfield Prison.

I will leave it to others to make unnecessary jokes about schools and prisons.

Certainly, as one designer has pointed out, the school "is picking up on the urban landscape". That may be the nub of the problem, from this observer's point of view.

Over on Dublin's Formula One race-track, otherwise known as the Merrion Road, the British embassy also picks up on the local urban landscape, which like Ranelagh Road consists of little more than an insane, never-ending stream of cars on a dangerous and over-crowded road.

The embassy building itself must surely be one of the ugliest and most depressing modern structures ever erected in this country.

Not surprisingly then, the British embassy was in the running about a year and a half ago for a prize in an EU architectural competition organised by the Royal Institute of British Architects. I do not recall if it won, but I do remember a gentleman writing to this newspaper and suggesting that the news of its shortlisting must have come out of the same joke book as the environmental award given to the Sellafield Nuclear Reprocessing Plant in August, 1997.

This same writer, who obviously knows as little about architecture as myself, said that the embassy building was an insult to the residents of the area, a carbuncle on the face of Merrion Road: "It has been variously described as looking like a prison, a munitions factory and a fire-brigade depot. It has an aggressive, surly, unwelcoming aspect. The hard angular design and the cold, clinical, modern materials used are completely at odds with the other gracious buildings on Merrion Road."

Dear oh dear. I finally see where this correspondent and myself have gone wrong. How could we have been so blind? The whole point of such buildings must be to present aggressive, surly and unwelcoming aspects, in order to reflect urban realities, particularly in our capital city.

This must be what is meant by reflecting the urban landscape - reflecting the thuggery, anger, frustration and barely repressed violence on our streets, and not merely the blaring, choking traffic.

These are tough, young, don't mess-with-me buildings. They are dressed in combat gear and have their heads shaved, metaphorically speaking (blame the flat roofs on Frank Lloyd Wright). They are not to be compared with the relics of faded graciousness. And they cannot help asserting themselves. It is in their nature.

Their whole purpose is to repel rather than to attract.

What we are confronted with in buildings like the British embassy (and to a lesser extent, the Ranelagh multi-denominational school) is the modern school of in-your-face architecture. You certainly don't stare in delight, as you might at a traditionally attractive building that fits in with its surroundings.

"Whaddya lookin' at?" is the threatening question posed by these grim structures. It is wiser to say nothing, turn away, and cast your eyes downward as you pass.