NCE upon a time, there was an English castle with towering turrets and imposing outer walls, Norman in style and set in a quaint little English city, a great university centre and a melange of 10 decades of British architecture...

As unlikely as it seems, this is no British fairy tale but Songjiang, a satellite city on the outskirts of Shanghai, and for James Sylvester, a 23-year-old architect from Middlesborough in Northeast England, it is a fast-approaching Chinese reality. Since arriving in Shanghai six months ago, Sylvester has worked on this and other projects that are set to change the face of the city and the surrounding area dramatically over the course of the next five years. Whether designing a classic English castle or developing distinctive Shanghainese skyscrapers, at the heart of his work is a drive to bring an environmental practicality and a unique, cohesive edge to the city's future image.

Castle designer

With a warming Northern lilt and cheekily lit eyes, he talks modestly of the talents that have drawn him from his working class beginnings. Smiling sheepishly, he admits to enjoying a relaxed early school career, from which he emerged with just three GCSEs before entering Cleveland College of Art and Design. Only the college's diagnosis of his dyslexia roused the motivation and determination that would see him leave Cleveland with a Distinction and the best grades of the year. He went on to achieve a first class BA Honours Degree in Architecture from Huddersfield University and won the Royal Institute of British Architects' (RIBA) White Rose Award for Best Young Designer. He also gained a Commended in the RIBA's International President Medal Award and found employment with Atkins, one of the five most globally prestigious architectural firms.

One year on, Sylvester found the architectural director at Atkins offering to "pull a few strings" and get him out to Shanghai. "He'd worked over here and was really positive and excited about the city," says Sylvester. "Before I knew it I was in Asia, working under Paul Rice and designing a Norman castle as the centre of a new city called Songjiang."

This is one of 10 government developments designed to draw 10 million people out of an already overcrowded Shanghai into 10 satellite cities. Each is to have an national style - French, Spanish, German. Each is to have a different purpose: Anting a car manufacturing city, New Harbour City boasting the world's biggest docks, Songjiang arising as a British-style university centre. When Atkins won the much coveted contract for the design of Songjiang, it was Sylvester whom they commissioned to design the city's focal point, the Normanesque castle-cum-art-gallery, traditional in theme, contemporary in feel.

"Coming from the northeast of England and near the Scottish borderlands, I knew a little bit about castles," smiles Sylvester. "I chose the Norman architectural theme, but gave it a modern make-over inside. It's very Richard Meier in style, very light and airy, and lots of white. It's a challenge trying to hold onto the feel of a castle yet push into it a modern edge."

Exciting opportunities

The excitement Sylvester feels in being here is unmistakable. Architecturally, the opportunities in Shanghai are unique. "In the UK everything has been done," he frowns. Despite being an acknowledged talent in Britain, his possibilities there cannot be compared to those in Shanghai. "Back home I was privileged to be designing reception areas and toilet blocks. Here it's crazy. Since coming to Shanghai I've moved from working on a fourth floor to a 44th floor. The best opportunities in design are in China and they are immense. It's very exciting."

His abilities have earned him big responsibilities during his stay in Asia. Wujiaochang, "the Trafalgar Square of Shanghai," is an area in the Yangpu District earmarked by the government as a centre for technology, education and development. An urban centre piece for the future Shanghai, Atkins fended off fierce competition from two other companies for the development contract before inviting Sylvester to play a large role in the project.

Sylvester has addressed the task with a view to using sustainable, environmentally conscious building practices to sculpt a characteristically Shanghainese architectural form. "A lot of the designs in Shanghai at the moment are straight copies from Europe. We need to develop new buildings that can give the city a distinctive and cohesive feel. There's the money and the technology in Shanghai, but there's too much mixing of styles from other nations' pasts. The elite of Shanghai favour a Western image at the expense of Chinese tradition."

Sylvester cites an example of two architectural plots recently developed, one of high quality traditional Chinese houses, the other an inferior and slipshod effort at American villas. "The American villas were sold out before they were finished, the Chinese homes sold only two," he says.

Environmental concern

A more pressing concern is a lack of environmental consciousness amongst his Chinese colleagues and clients. Sylvester is adamant about the urgency of the situation. "Just look at the facts. In the UK, buildings create more than 60 per cent of all carbon dioxide emissions. If things continue, in 25 years global warming will have melted the polar ice caps to the extent that global water levels will have risen 1.5 metres." That takes care of low lying areas, Sylvester's home town for example, parts of London, all of Bangladesh. "Something needs to be done," he says. And these are not idle words. Compiling a bilingual booklet on environmental techniques and their importance for the Chinese architectural industry, Sylvester insists such considerations can actually help drive a design and be financially beneficial too. "It can give a design a purpose if you know why you're doing something. China is lacking in knowledge not capabilities. You just need to explain to a client that an outlay of, say, 20 per cent more initially, can ensure savings in the long term. Ten years on that building can run for free, it becomes sustainable."

It is hard to doubt that Sylvester will make an impression on his colleagues; he carries the aura of one who is calm, confident and contented, a man to place your faith in. "Shanghai develops you architecturally but also as a person with life experience, more than any university course. I came over here as a young Westerner, anonymous in the city and when I went to spec the Wujiaochang site, I stood amidst the bustle and energy of the people around me, written off as a tourist or wandering ex-pat, and in my head I was creating something that will affect them everyday for generations. I looked all around me knowing they would never know it was me. Wow. That's architecture for you. That's the excitement of being in Shanghai right now," he said.

Though his time in China comes to an end in March, through the work he has done a part of Sylvester will be here for many years to come.