Viviano Villarreal Bueron is an architectural designer and founder of MASS OPERATIONS. An award-winning international architecture + interior design studio.
Raised in Monterrey Mexico, Viviano graduated from the University Tec de Monterrey in 2008, where he studied architecture underneath AgustÍn Landa Vértiz. Viviano spent his early career travelling the world and working under infamous industry names before establishing his own studio in 2015, MASS OPERATIONS.
MASS OPERATIONS is based in Mexico with offices in Monterrey and Mexico city. Viviano's studio quickly completed a string of award-winning interior designs and by 2020 their portfolio included large scale architectural projects in Mexico such as: the “Stair House” in Monterrey, the “Barcode Tulum” and the “Farmacias del Ahorro headquarter office” buildings.
10 years after graduating, the founding of his own company, and an extensive career lecturing across Asia the US and Latin America, Viviano returned to school. He gained a masters in “Design, Theory and Pedagogy” from the avant-garde Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles and his thesis was awarded the Best Post-Graduate Thesis Prize of 2019.
In 2023, Viviano became a tenured professor at the University of Monterrey to challenge, collaborate, and exchange ideas with the next generation of architects.
We spoke to Viviano about his commitment to education, his philosophy as a designer, and how he built an international design studio on a foundation of LEGO building blocks.
When did you become interested in architecture?
As a child I was fascinated by LEGO blocks, sofa cushion forts, and drawings. These things filled my childhood. Early on I declared I wanted to 'build houses', not yet knowing that an individual who did so was called an architect. I threw a massive tantrum once, upon discovering one of my beloved LEGO brick designs had been destroyed in the process of being put away. The 6-year-old rage ended with a blown gum blood vessel! “I knew since then that you'd be an architect”, my mother later confessed. Since I can remember, my mother, in her endless wisdom, has taken every opportunity to show me art and walk me through museums.
I enrolled at my local university and found mentors through whom I would develop an insatiable thirst for new challenges that opened up the world, from Latin America, to Europe, Asia and back. As a young architect I traveled and worked overseas in contrasting cultural situations such as Santiago de Chile with Felipe Assadi, Amsterdam with Bjarne Mastenbroek of Search Architects, and Hong Kong with David Gianotten and Rem Koolhaas of the OMA Rotterdam office.
How did MASS OPERATIONS come to be?
I set up Mass Operations in 2015, after 5 incredible years working across Asia with OMA. I saw the opportunity and felt I had the necessary knowledge, skills, and confidence to embark on my own projects. It was a big challenge, the biggest one yet. Starting a studio in 2 continents, with 1 person and 0 clients was not an easy task.
I decided to travel through the US by motorcycle to think about it. I interviewed anybody who gave me a chance. Was I doing the right thing? 2 months and 12,000 miles later my mind was made up. Looking back now 8 years later, its still feels as exciting and challenging as that first year.
Can you explain your approach to design at MASS OPERATIONS?
How is an idea formed?
In my experience, there are only rare instances of inspiration where ideas come to you fully formed. Design ideas come in hazy, blurry incomplete visions, much akin to trying to recall a dream. It takes a lot of work to fully grasp one’s own idea. MASS OPERATIONS states our working method in order to develop and understand our visions and subsequently communicate them as a fully formed and clear concept to our clients.
As designers we have materials and tools at our disposal. With each project, we set out to generate a series of steps or operations, that when applied to matter and mass generate space. Mass + Operations = Space.
Where do you find inspiration?
Those rare moments of inspiration often reach me during times of distraction, nestled in between periods of intense work. I often find myself preoccupied with a design problem for weeks: how to solve a corner, how to manage a building scheme with a given set of municipal rules, etc. Suddenly, the solution will come during a run, or in the shower. Oddly, it’s those moments of distraction, the repetition of one foot in front of the other on a run, or the washing of shampoo out of one’s hair, when the fully formed ideas come. Inspiration strikes fast, but it only comes within long periods of incessantly toiling over the issues at hand.
I am also obsessed by other people’s passions. I admire the work of any architect who sets out to improve our profession and our built environment through their work. I admire the ability of people to pour themselves into their work. Nothing is half done. Jacques Francois Blondel, Buckminster Fuller, Louis I Kahn, Gordon Matta Clark, Louise Nevelson and Frank Zappa are some of my heroes.
You also head an educational platform, Catedra Mass. Why is providing education important to you?
I believe [my desire to teach] comes from emulating the example of my mentors. They all taught and had their own practices. It seems that teaching takes on different meanings in the chapters of an architect’s life.
Teaching is in no doubt a way of giving back to the community, but if done right it pays so much back in dividends. Teaching is a symbiotic relationship. Getting to see students develop and live a happy and successful life with their work is an immense privilege. The transferring of knowledge to younger generations and the debating of ideas is something that really excites me. I believe this is the core of Academia.
With the Catedra MASS I get the freedom to teach what and how I want. It transcends the traditional classroom environment to include study trips, project site visits, interviews, podcast monologues, public lectures, all of that feeds and informs the minds of young designers in a positive way.
What is next for MASS OPERATIONS?
We will soon be opening a small interior design shop, our first in Mexico City. It’s a small shop with a big idea. It follows our credo of doing more with less. We're really excited with that space.
We are also working on a series of houses. One presents a very complicated site with a 70% slope inclination. Two other houses are exploring the notion of the stone carved cave. One of which recently broke ground this summer and we are looking forward to seeing its construction progress on site.
And finally, a large apartment complex in Cancún which has recently topped out its 7th storey level and has a scheduled completion date by spring of next year (2024).
Browse an archive of Viviano's work at www.massoperations.com, and keep up to date with future developments by following MASS OPERATIONS on Instagram.
