Frau Gerolds Garten Zurich – An urban Garden of Eden

This restaurant, bar, shopping area and urban gardening project ticks all the boxes when it comes to creating an on-trend urban regeneration feel: it's located in one of the few remaining slightly seedy-looking areas in flashy Zurich West. The people behind Frau Gerold have a great track record in running popular bars. The food is partly grown on site, with the rest being organic and locally sourced. There is a community thread running throughout, and locals are invited to grow their own veg on site.

The containers housing fashion labels keep their doors open (though not literally) all year round, while the bar and restaurant adjust their offering to the season: fondue in a cosy hut in winter, BBQ and al fresco drinking in summer, briefly closed in between.

It's worth knowing that from the outset, Frau Gerolds Garten's days have been numbered, with plans for a shiny new convention centre to be built on the site. The plans have recently come a cropper, but whether Frau Gerold will stay in her abode remains to be seen. At any rate, the garden has been built with temporality in mind: the containers and veg beds can easily be packed up and moved elsewhere.

One way or another, Frau Gerolds Garten is here to stay.