Swati Sachdeva distinguished herself in her Master of Urban Design thesis exploring a post-disaster recovery model for Port-au-Prince, Haiti that goes beyond just rebuilding homes. She conducted on-site research, interviews, and surveys to understand residents' challenges and needs. Her design proposal restores the mangrove shoreline, relocates residents in flood zones, creates parks and infrastructure to absorb floods and treat water. It also proposes a new street hierarchy for better circulation and access to community facilities that double as emergency centers. The design aims to improve physical, social, and economic wellbeing through a more sustainable approach. The professor recommends Swati highly and believes she will be a valued professional.

1. http://arch.ced.berkeley.edu
December 12, 2014
RE: Recommendation for Swati Sachdeva
To Whom It May Concern:
It gives me great pleasure to offer a letter of recommendation for Swati
Sachdeva. I have come to know Swati as one of my thesis students in the
Master of Urban Design (MUD) program at the College of Environmental Design
in the Spring of 2014. Let me say at the outset that Swati distinguished herself
by her resourcefulness, creative imagination and careful attention to the
fundamental needs of the people involved in the post-disaster recovery of Port-
au-Prince, Haiti. The skills demonstrated in her thesis exploration give every
indication that she will be a superb professional and bring a unique perspective
and experience to any design practice.
Swati’s thesis, Re-envisioning Sustainable Growth, Port-au-Prince, Haiti,
proposes a different and more profound post-disaster recovery model that goes
way beyond just rebuilding homes. It addresses the fundamental needs of the
residents in creating a better quality of life with much greater resistance and
resiliency against future disasters. Swati grounded her design explorations by
first visiting the site, documenting its physical and social problems, conducting
interviews and surveys with residents and identifying the challenges and
problems in the residents’ every day lives. This experience provided Swati with a
much richer ‘program’ to drive her design explorations and demonstrates her
initiative.
The site Swati chose in Port-au-Prince faces additional disaster challenges
beyond earthquakes, including floods from a bordering riverbed and storm
surges from hurricanes along its shoreline. Swati ‘s design proposal starts by
restoring the mangrove shoreline, relocating residents in the surge zone and
creating a stepped levy that acts as a public park and movement infrastructure
for the neighborhood. She then expands and restores the natural banks of the
riverbed to absorb future floods and uses the space on its edges to construct
neighborhood services, including toilets, showers and washing facilities where
the water is treated and recycled using ‘living machines’ and all the energy is
provided by renewables.

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Within this framework the design proposes a new hierarchy and structure of
streets by strategically opening up new routes that allow better circulation, but
also give access to community facilities that double as emergency facilities
during disasters. The streets are further modified to channel and treat storm
water that also provides irrigation for shade trees, greatly improving the micro-
climate. One of the neighborhood facilities is proposed as a waste recycling
center that creates an internal economy for the neighborhood residents. In other
words the physical design provides the means to ‘close the loop’ to a more
sustainable economy.
In her thesis Swati demonstrates the transformative power of design to not only
improve the physical experience of the public realm, but also improve the social
and economic wellbeing of the neighborhood residents. It is this kind of ‘design
thinking’ that makes Swati special and why I am pleased to give her my
enthusiastic recommendation. I am confident she will be a valued professional
colleague.
Sincerely,
Harrison Fraker
Professor of Architecture and Urban Design, Department of Architecture
William Wurster Dean Emeritus, College of Environmental Design
Chair, Energy Resources Group, UC Berkeley
2014 AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion Recipient