Dean of the Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania and Founder and Co-Director of the Ian McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology

I think Ian McHarg would be very happy to see the enthusiastic reception for this exhibition in Shanghai. When I look at the photos of Design with Nature Now, what stands out to me is not just the beauty and creativity of the installation, but the diversity of people in attendance. If we are to “green the earth,” as McHarg implored, we need everyone to play a part.

Chair of the Landscape Architecture Department and Co-Director of the Ian McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology at the Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania

Cities of the future, I would say, will probably be known as something more than just places for people. I think we really have to decenter the position of humans in the urban environment and consider the other species living here with us. Their survival and the ethos of designing with nature are equally important in many ways. Whether considering plant or animal species, we need to think about which species might become part of our daily lives, which ones are integral to our cities and urban fabric, and which ones we truly depend on. We will start to see a much more blended habitat emerging, characterized by a highly ecological approach. For me, this truly represents thinking about designing with nature for a future yet to come.

Associate Professor of Practice in the Department of Landscape Architecture and the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania; Leading Instructor of the 2025 Tongji University CAUP International Design Summer School

The 2025 edition of the Design with Nature Now exhibition, organized by the College of Architecture and Urban Planning at Tongji University and held from June to August 2025 in Shanghai, was an outstanding event for several reasons:

It was hosted at the Minghua Sugar Warehouse, a beautifully retrofitted post-industrial building situated on the banks of the Huangpu River. This location exemplifies Shanghai’s remarkable transformation of former ports and industrial zones into vibrant, resilient civic spaces that are adaptive to flooding. McHarg would have been proud of both the exhibition and these large-scale, nature-based riverfront initiatives.

The exhibition showcased material prepared for the inaugural show at the University of Pennsylvania in 2050—marking the 50th anniversary of McHarg’s seminal book—with impressive clarity, impact, and pedagogical value. The spatial organization facilitated engaging navigation through thematic areas (such as Ecological Design, Cultural Contexts, and Innovative Technologies), allowing visitors to deeply explore each project. The thoughtful display of diverse initiatives underscored their relevance as vital reflections of McHarg’s legacy.

c) The museography created a coherent flow, encouraging visitors to spend meaningful time in each section, with visual connections linking projects and themes. This spatial arrangement fostered an appreciation of the diversity and interconnectedness inherent in design with nature, highlighting how site-specific cultural and ecological nuances inform each intervention, and clearly demonstrating how the various topics are interconnected.

CEO of OLIN Landscape Architecture, USA, Adjunct Professor at the Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania

The photographs of the exhibition underscore how incredible and important this event was for Tongji, PENN, and all of the individuals with participation...and quite frankly, the world. The world needs to understand that the way forward is through holistic thinking and acknowledging and celebrating one planet.