The privileged view: Grimshaw stand on right

Inside, behind an immense forward-tilting glass wall giving a vertiginously panoramic view of proceedings, up to 240 cricket commentators and journalists will sit on white Arne Jacobsen chairs at tiers of white computer-cabled desks. They will be able to cool their fevered brows by twiddling very 1960s cream plastic air nozzles of the sort you used to find in long-distance coaches and airliners. Unlike most of the originals, these - mounted in the desk-tops - work. Whether they and the electrically-operated blinds behind the glass will be enough to reduce the effect of low sun - the building faces due West - remains to be seen.

The rest of the interior of this cricket pod is lined in baby blue soft fabric, apparently inspired by the colour scheme of a 1957 Ford Thunderbird (that name again). Despite the lack of fur or shiny plastic - stainless steel is preferred for details such as spiral stair rails - the feel is more 1967 Barbarella. Particularly in the bar at the back, a soft curvy space without a right-angle to be found, where tired and emotional sports hacks may well become even more disorientated than usual. If this place does not swiftly become a set for endless TV ads and science-fiction films, there's no justice.

In the end, however, only one thing matters. Is the building right for both its purpose and its setting? On both counts, the answer is yes. Lord's has undertaken an ambitious programme of rebuilding over the past dozen years, with world-class stands by Sir Michael Hopkins and Nicholas Grimshaw, and a series of fine modern back-of-house buildings by the young architect David Morley. The Media Centre elegantly resolves what was an architecturally indeterminate end of the ground, and does so with elan and a sensitivity to its context. Inside it offers superb views not only of the game, but also of the other architecture. For all its one-off character, you cannot begrudge this pod its essential podness. I only worry that the public can't use it. Journalists don't even pay to see the matches.