CULTURAL SYMBIOSIS AND REGENERATION OF SHANGHAI CABLE FACTORY INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE

Abstract

In the context of urban renewal and industrial restructuring, the conservation of Shanghai’s industrial heritage has shifted from the preservation of individual buildings to the coordination of historical memory, spatial structure, public life, and urban cultural identity. From the perspective of cultural symbiosis, this article takes the former Shanghai Cable Factory as the main case and examines its cultural value, conservation status, and regeneration challenges. The study combines literature review, archival research, field investigation, and questionnaire surveys involving 15 experts and 385 members of the public. The AHP results show that cultural value received the highest criterion weight (0.3517), followed by socio-economic function (0.2828), spatial design characteristics (0.1855), and ecological environment (0.1801). The overall mean of the public questionnaire was 3.6295 on a five-point scale. By combining expert weights with public improvement gaps, the study identifies authenticity preservation, safety and accessibility, historical interpretation, cultural display and education, and industrial spatial character as the main regeneration priorities. The results show that the key problem is not a lack of heritage resources, but the limited transformation of industrial remains into accessible and understandable public experiences. The regeneration of the Shanghai Cable Factory should therefore be understood as a cultural-symbiosis-oriented process that reconnects industrial heritage value, public urban functions, local memory, and spatial renewal. This article provides a theoretical and empirical basis for conservation-oriented regeneration research on Shanghai’s industrial heritage.

Keywords: Industrial Heritage, Conservation Status, Cultural Symbiosis, Urban Renewal