Nils Fischer Director Dipl Ing

Profile
Nils joined ZHA in 2004 and has since developed a large design portfolio spanning Europe, the Middle East and Asia. His extensive experience in delivering cultural facilities, including performing arts facilities and museums, as well as projects involving novelty design, engineering and construction solutions. In recent years, he has been working on complex high-rise structures, and has recently set the world construction speed record for high-rise buildings with the Nanjing International Youth Cultural Centre in China.
Nils founded ZHA’s computational design research group (CODE), developing next-generation technologies for formfinding and rationalisation. He also co-leads Cluster 1, the largest business unit within ZHA which focuses on cultural, infrastructure and transportation projects. Prior to ZHA, Nils worked for ABB Architekten and Bernhard Franken Architekten in Frankfurt on award- winning projects for BMW, as well as a freelance engineering consultant on projects by Massimiliano Fuksas.

Education & Teaching
Nils has an academic background in architecture with a focus on experimental computational geometry. He studied in Germany and Italy and graduated from the Technische Universitaet Darmstadt with a diploma in architecture (2002).

Project experience overview
Nils oversees numerous large sports and culture projects in the role of project director, amongst them the Xi’an International Football Centre currently under construction in China, a new 60,000-seat stadium for national and international matches as well as domestic league games, the Hangzhou Sports Complex in China comprising of a 60,000 seat stadium, a 19,000 seat arena and a 2,000 seat Aquatics Centre, under design and won in competition in 2022, and the Chengdu Guangdu Museum, both won in competition in 2023, as well as the 25,000m² Grand Theatre de Rabat in Morocco. This project includes a 2,000-seat grand theatre, a 7,000-person amphitheatre, as well as a 130-seat multi-purpose theatre and will be completed in 2023.

Nils has previously led and overseen the 473,000m² Nanjing International Youth Cultural Centre (China), completed in 2018, a mixed-use development comprising offices, retail areas, a five-star hotel, a conference centre and exhibition halls and has previously worked on a multitude of large-scale projects for ZHA, including the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum in Michigan, the Dubai Opera House and Cultural Centre in Dubai, the Abu Dhabi Performing Arts Centre.