So Today I Went Shopping for a Used Submarine

“So apparently Vancouver has something of a submarine graveyard,” says graphic designer/ photographer Emanuel Smedbøl alongside his instagram photos that popped up on my newsfeed and subsequently sent me into a spiral of google searches, from “used research submarines for sale” to “de-militarised Russian sub for cheap“. (I’m easily distracted). Alas, it’s not as easy…

The Hole: Café Apocalypse?

One of the more challenging “ghost” photos I’ve had the pleasure of researching– and by “ghost” photo, I mean a photograph that floats around the internet, conveniently without any credit or information about the location or subject. The internet rumour was that “the hole” was originally caused by a rooftop bomb attack. As fascinating as that…

My Little Surf Shack

The outdoor tub had me at hello. Then there was the artist studio, the airy guest house and the sculpture garden of abandoned trucks. And suddenly, I’m interested in surfing. Welcome to the home of artist David Bromley in Byron Bay, surfing capital of Australia, recently visited and photographed by the Design Files. With his…

The Wondrous, Slightly Creepy World of Japanese Retro Futurism

Getting to work on propellor-driven high-speed swans, robots babysitting the kids while the parents are having tea in space and epic underwater battles with giant starfish; just another day in Japanese retro future! A series of vintage magazine illustrations reveal Japan’s grandparents of today had a very imaginative, if not worrying vision for the future– let’s…

An Unknown Bob Dylan & friends at Summer Festivals of the 1960s

While thousands storm the famous muddy fields of Glastonbury for its annual music festival this week, why don’t we turn back the clock to the summertime festivals gone by, when Bob Dylan’s words weren’t yet American anthems, hipster was just another name for a jazz musician and the music seemed to have just a little…

Downton Abbey meets the Flintstones: England’s Abandoned Rock Houses

I don’t watch Downton Abbey, but if it were set inside houses like these, I think I probably would! Welcome to Holy Austin Rock in Staffordshire, England. These medieval cave houses carved from sandstone were abandoned by the last residents in the 1960s, but people were living happily inside them for over three centuries before…

Montmartre: Then & Now

On a Sunday ride with my outdated pedal-starter moped, aimlessly putt-putting through the streets of Montmartre, I came across a peculiar building, unlike any of the others I had seen that day. It looked as if it were hundreds of years old … Standing at the intersection of Rue Marcadet and Rue du Mont Cenis, it…

Found in a Junk Shop: Secrets of an Undiscovered Visionary Artist

His story is one shrouded in mystery, almost lost forever, intertwined with secret societies, hidden codes, otherworldly theories and seemingly impossible inventions before his time. Unseen for decades and salvaged by a junk dealer in the 1960s from a trash heap outside a house in Texas, his entire body of work would later go on…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. XXVII)

1. Faceless Portraits Artist Camilla Catrambone‘s portraits aim to represent her family members through the objects they’ve owned… #grandma Ilva. Mario’s wife. #grandpa Mario. Ilva’s husband. #grandma Ilva #nanny Renata #grandpa Antonio #mother By Camilla Catrambone 2. Japan’s awesome Underground Bicycle Parking System See the Japanese bike storage live in action…

The Sole Resident of the World’s Largest Abandoned Building & other Tales

Earlier today, we met the “castaway collector” at his mind boggling apartment in Brooklyn. But I just couldn’t stop there without showing you the rest of this fantastic series This Must Be the Place from Lost & Found films. Collaborators with names like VICE magazine, NY Times and Nike, the film production company, founded by Ben Wu…