Renovation of industrial heritage sites and sustainable urban regeneration in post-industrial Shanghai

The renovation of cities’ urban industrial heritage fabric is becoming increasingly recognized as an opportunity for post-industrial urban development, suggesting a complex interplay between the renovation of industrial heritage sites and urban regeneration effects in surrounding areas. However, prior research on industrial heritage renovation rarely transcends the arts-led gentrification narrative, and whether/to what extent industrial heritage renovation can catalyze sustainable urban regeneration in surrounding areas—and the driving forces underpinning that process—remains unclear, especially within the Chinese context. In this research, we focus on Shanghai’s top-down policy of renovating industrial heritage sites into locations for creative industry clusters. By comparing Yishan Road and Changyuan Districts from 2008 to 2018, we arrived at a nuanced understanding of the urban regeneration effects of industrial heritage renovation as a policy-induced gentrification model. We further concluded that the renovation of a city’s industrial heritage fabric could catalyze sustainable urban regeneration if implemented through an integrated development model that considered the physical, economic, social, and cultural aspects that resonated with the current policy and institutional system. These findings have important theoretical and practical implications in urban policy and planning discussions on the strategic value of industrial heritage renovation in post-industrial cities.