MFO Park, in the redeveloped Oerlikon industrial quarter north of the city, takes a 100-metre-long, 17-metre-high steel frame — once the structural shell of a Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon assembly hall — and turns it into a vertical garden. Some 1,000 climbing plants of dozens of species ascend the framework, with walkways and balconies at three levels giving visitors a literal step inside the foliage. Rooftop terrace at the top has lake-and-Alps views on a clear day.
The park is open year-round, free, and is best in mid- to late summer when the planting is at full density. It is a fifteen-minute walk from Oerlikon station and well off the standard tourist route, but architecturally one of the most interesting public spaces built in the city in recent decades. The Hardbrücke evening crowd sometimes lingers up here for sunset.