In the foothills of Southern California, an unusual castle grew out of materials that most people would have thrown away. Bottles, scrap metal, old machinery, car parts and fragments of Glendora’s past were collected and worked into a sprawling handmade complex that took decades to complete.

In 1968, Michael Rubel began building something that was never meant to be an ordinary home. On his family’s 2.5-acre citrus farm in Glendora, California, Rubel had already…

In the foothills of Southern California, an unusual castle grew out of materials that most people would have thrown away. Bottles, scrap metal, old machinery, car parts and…