THE GUT REACTION of assessor Angela Rolfe, assistant principal architect with the Office of Public Works, to the closest contender for the Downes Medal - a glittering bronze-clad extension to a Victorian house on Palmerston Road, in Rathmines, by Boyd Cody Architects - was to describe it as "a bespoke Rolls Royce . . . that it is bordering on the bling! You are straying into Victoria Beckham territory, as far as I'm concerned."

As she put it: "You're going to have to dress in a certain way to sit in that space. There's no way you can slop around the place in your jimjams on a Sunday morning, or have children standing on a squidgy sandwich there."

But Irish assessor Martin Henchion said of this "trophy" project, which won one of the AAI's two special awards: "Even if it is Victoria Beckham, it's Victoria Beckham on a good day."

Francis Rambert, director of the Institut Français d'Architecture, saw its sculptural façade as brilliant.

"Compared to the houses we have seen - very conservative, very déjà vu - I think it's much more creative, much more interesting," he said. And artist/photographer John Gerrard regarded its "hyper-modernity" as a "breath of fresh air", something that "shimmered in from some futuristic place" to bedazzle the jury.