My favourite non-residential building in Bangor is one that you may not even take heed of. It’s sort of faded into the patchwork of the Main Street over the years, but when you take a good look, it’s a very unusual, modernist marvel.

From the front you can see the huge glass front door panel, and the windows are massive, and by the looks of them, still single-paned, which must mean it’s a pain to heat for current tenants Boom Studios.

The building was originally home to the Allied Irish Bank, built in 1969 to a design by Shanks & Leighton. Again I’m mourning my loss of a certain book, An Introduction to Modern Ulster Architecture, by David Evans, as it’s got a photo of the interior when the building was first built. It’s interior design was as modernistic as the outside. The walls swooped down to a curve to meet the floor, making the offices look like the inside of a spaceship, if perhaps the alien HR department.

A nice touch is the fact Boom Studios have had a poster made by Neal McCullough from Hand Drawn Creative (lots of great prints for Christmas gifts in his store by the way) featuring the building itself.

So, the Pikachu? Well, Smix spotted it one day when we were walking down the town. It’s peeking out of one of the top windows, round the corner just off Main Street. Watch out for him next time you are down.

I loved Ex Machina. I love robots (I'm also terrified of them, due to another childhood memory), the soundtrack was class (this tune from the film's climax especially) and I loved the story of the film. Another character besides the robot fascinated me however, and that was the house of the billionaire inventor. I especially was drawn to the rock face feature that made up one of the stark living areas. I was goggling at the house more than paying attention to plot.

I've always been fascinated with exteriors used as interior walls. Locally there's a great example in Bangor's heritage centre. Coffee Cure restaurant cafe is indoors, but one wall is the old exterior courtyard wall of Bangor Castle. For years any time I've visited the small museum I've remembered peeking through the door to see the wall, and feeling very happy at the sight of it. I think I know why.

Coffee Cure at Bangor Museum set up for an event

It's one of my earliest childhood memories again. When I was a toddler my parents would take me on holidays to Rose Cottage, a rental home on the Isle of Man. I have very little memory of it. Just the tail-less cats at the cottage, some of the beautiful seafront gardens of Dingle, the giant sunny face of Summerland (below), and the interior rock wall of its indoor pool.

Summerland was a giant leisure complex, which originally was much bigger. It would be a billion pound venture to build these days. The pool below is the original, I can't find a photo of the pool I would have been in. I'm almost sure it was parallel to the wall.

The reason I couldn't have remembered this pool is because Summerland #1 burnt to the ground in 1973.