The Shoreditch of Switzerland’s most traditional city, Zurich West is a former industrial hub that’s become a diverse, happening centre of creativity. On a visit, we found that it offers the polar opposite of the stereotypical image of Zurich as a financial hub.
When visiting Zurich West, the first things you’re likely going to notice are the former brutalist factories, which have been turned into progressive museums, artisan shops, and restaurants championing local produce. Design products have a Swiss precision unmatched by other major cities, whilst the foods served here nod to the Alpine surroundings.
One of the city’s cultural gems is the Museum für Gestaltung, and our first stop was their site on the Toni-Areal, which nowadays is the campus of the Zurich University of the Arts, having once housed Europe’s largest yoghurt factory. We found the exhibition that was on during our visit, Design for All? Diversity as the Norm (until 20 October 2024), highly thought-provoking. Some exhibits were from a Queering the Domestic exhibition, which offers critical commentary on the public’s acceptance of standardised spaces. Is there a need for road signs to be hetero-male dominated? We think not. The exhibition challenged the norm by offering examples of a pregnant woman and a lesbian couple.
Close by, their original site is currently offering the blockbuster Oliviero Toscani: Photography and Provocation exhibition. You might think you’ve never heard of Oliviero Toscani until perhaps you remember his controversial Benetton advertisements. Photographic exhibitions rarely challenge our consciousness as much as this one did: social conventions and topical issues such as gender, racism, ethics, and aesthetics were confronted head-on. The groundbreaking H.I.V. Positive Benetton ad and the surrounding furore were explicitly explained in what turned out to be one of our most moving experiences visiting Zurich West.
The area is also a mecca for independent and sustainable shops. One of our favourites is the flagship store of FREITAG, a brand specialising in stylish, upcycled bags made from genuine airbags. The shop itself is a colourful, 26-metre-tall tower of 19 shipping containers. We ascended to the top floor for a magnificent view over the Zurich West district. Nearby are the Viadukt Arches, which showcase why Swiss design is respected globally. You have everything from luxury interior design shops like Visite Privée to sustainable design knitwear shops like Erfolg (our only issue was not carrying a more sizeable suitcase to stock up on gifts).
Diverse food offerings are celebrated at the Markthalle in the Viadukt Arches. A British cheese deli sits comfortably alongside a Japanese tapas food stall, whilst close by is the most popular fresh pasta shop in town, Pasta Mercato. We dined at Restaurant Markthalle, the venue’s main sit-down dining outlet, which is a passionate advocate for local ingredients – we dined on Zurich classics like beetroot risotto and bone marrow with fleur de sel.
There’s also the former shipbuilding factory of Schiffbau, now the centre of the area’s nightlife scene. With three theatrical stages, a jazz club and a fashionable restaurant, this is the place to see and be seen. We ended up not staying quite long enough to fit everything into a single trip, but if we’d stayed longer, we would have checked out the techno scene of Zurich West at nightclubs such as Hive. Then again, this wasn’t our last time visiting.
Baldwin flew to Zurich with SWISS Air, which departs from several airports across the UK.
www.zuerich.com | www.myswitzerland.com
Photography by Roland Tännler, Susanne Vollm and courtesy of Switzerland Tourism
