Rem Koolhaas disciple opens Hong Kong architecture firm

Mass Operations, one of Hong Kong's newest architectural practices, was founded by 31-year-old Viviano Villarreal Bueron, a former disciple of Rem Koolhaas. Born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico, Villarreal has worked for Koolhaas' Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) on projects such as the Edouard Malingue Gallery, in Central, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the Taipei Performing Arts Centre.

"I loved Lego. When I was six years old, I couldn't wait to get back to work on this little hotel I was doing after school. When I realised it had been systematically dismantled and put away, I threw a massive tantrum, to the point that I blew a blood vessel in my gums. After that, my parents told me, 'Yeah, you're going to be an architect.'"

"My father did two semesters of architecture. I didn't find out until I was at architecture school. He backed out of it because he got a full scholarship in the United States to play on the golf team at Texas A&M University. They didn't teach architecture, so he changed to business."

"I've always wanted to have my own firm and, when I came here [in 2009], I completely fell in love with Hong Kong and Asia. Having been at OMA for five years and done things from the small scale to the large - art galleries, a 250-metre tower in Shenzhen, the theatre in Taipei - I wanted to have more sense of ownership of my work."

"I like working with all typologies - cultural, infrastructure, urban planning. But that's hard to sell in the beginning, so what I've focused on is residential and retail. One project I'd like to do, and I would do it pro bono, is a religious structure of any denomination. There's a lot of emotion discharged in that type of building - at baptisms, weddings, funerals. To be able to make that emotion even grander is an interesting challenge. I also like office space. How do you make an office that people want to be in, that's fun, where they don't get headaches?"