diff --git a/Alien/Package/Deb.pm b/Alien/Package/Deb.pm
index e8d85bc..6a9679d 100644
--- a/Alien/Package/Deb.pm
+++ b/Alien/Package/Deb.pm
@@ -487,6 +487,14 @@ Build a deb.
 
 sub build {
 	my $this=shift;
+	
+	# Detect architecture mismatch and abort with a comprehensible
+	# error message.
+	my $arch=$this->arch;
+	my $ret=system("dpkg-architecture", "-i".$arch);
+	if ($ret != 0) {
+		die $this->filename." is for architecture ".$this->arch." ; the package cannot be built on this system"."\n";
+	}
 
 	chdir $this->unpacked_tree;
 	my $log=$this->runpipe(1, "debian/rules binary 2>&1");
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index a2e5d8a..eca4421 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ alien (8.82) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
   * Use debhelper compat level v7 when building packages. All changes
     since v4 seem safe for alien's generated rules files.
   * Use dh_prep instead of deprecated dh_clean -k.
+  * Print a nice error message when attempting to build a deb from a package
+    of an unsupported architecture. Closes: #592625
 
  -- Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>  Sun, 23 May 2010 18:55:14 -0400