3For those who go in search of the isolation, silence and adventure of wild places it is--perhaps ironically--to the man-made shelters that they need to head; the outposts: bothies, bivouacs, cabins and huts. Part of their allure is their simplicity: enough architecture to shelter from the weather but not so much as to distract from the immediate environment around.

From the Cairngorms of Scotland to the fire-watching huts of Washington State, from Iceland's Houses of Joy to the desert of New Mexico, and from the frozen beauty of Svalbard to the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, Richards visits the outposts and witnesses the landscapes, and asks: why are we drawn to wilderness? And how do wild places become a space for inspiration and creativity?