Published in 1969, Design with Nature, by Scottish landscape architect and planner Ian McHarg, was a manifesto, a seminal text translated into multiple languages. It is still in print today. McHarg, who was born in Scotland in 1920 and died in 2001, was the founder of the department of landscape architecture at the University of Pennsylvania and a public personality. With shows on American television he was politically well connected, talking to chat show hosts and walking with presidents.

Of McHarg’s strengths, his capacity to communicate complex ideas was well-known – and he