Searching for the Shanghai Institute of Biological Products (SIBP) in Columbia Circle Park: the neglected socialist danwei spaces and its place memory in urban renewal

No. 1262 Yan an West Road and No. 60 Panyu Road in Shanghai were previously part of Columbia Circle, which began construction in 1924, and the base of the Shanghai Institute of Biological Products (SIBP) from 1951 to 2014. They have now been transformed through urban renewal into one of Shanghai s famous instagrammable spots: Vanke Columbia Circle Park. In the survey of this completed site, we find that spatial traces of collective living in the form of danwei since the SIBP era are almost invisible in the cultural landscape of this urban renewal site. We use oral history interviews with the staff of SIBP, field research and critical reading to argue that Vanke Columbia Circle Park provides a typical case to discuss the authenticity of narratives of ‘architectural history’ constructed through contemporary practices of urban heritage preservation and regeneration. This study seeks to reveal the memory of place in SIBP and to rethink the misuse or manipulation of ‘real history’ in urban heritage renewal in the context of individual micro-historical experiences. © The Author(s) 2025.