Pleasure Factory

For much of the 1990s, the former industrial area of Zurich-West was deserted, the factories that once produced turbines and steamboats standing eerily silent. Then, in 2000, Schiffbau — a 19th century shipbuilding plant — was gutted to make way for a restaurant, jazz club and cluster of theaters. Today, nearly all of the area's brick-clad buildings have been repurposed as bars, shops and galleries, flanked by chic loft apartments. It's a transformation that's helping to turn Switzerland's largest city from a buttoned-up financial capital into something approaching a fashionable metropolis.

In the past few years, Schiffbau...