manuel alvarez diestro's photo series reimagines urban expansion through fabric landscapes

Manuel Alvarez Diestro captures Seas of Construction

In Seas of Construction, photographer Manuel Alvarez Diestro documents urban development across China and South Korea through a visual study of construction sites. The photography series focuses on large-scale temporary coverings, green and blue fabrics draped over terrains, that serve both functional and aesthetic roles during the construction process. These coverings, typically used to stabilize soil and reduce dust, appear in the images as expansive, textile landscapes. Their vivid coloration and scale resemble the earthworks of 20th-century land art, transforming utilitarian materials into visual metaphors within the natural and built environment.

Photographed in remote or peripheral areas beyond city centers, the sites are often transitional spaces, landscapes caught between states of erasure and emergence. The fabric surfaces take on the appearance of abstract topographies or undulating seascapes, suggesting the anticipation of new urban forms beneath.

construction site in Seoul, South Korea | all images by Manuel Alvarez Diestro

Fabrics draped over construction sites resemble seascapes

The Seas of Construction series first started taking form on Hainan Island, where photographer Manuel Alvarez Diestro noticed fabric laid across construction sites near palm trees resembled ocean waves, drawing parallels with travel calendars featuring idyllic tropical coasts. From this point, the visual metaphor of a ‘sea of construction’ began to define the conceptual lens through which the work evolved.

In recontextualizing these temporary interventions, the series presents a reinterpretation of the built environment and the materials that shape it. The photographs invite viewers to consider how urban growth is not only a structural process, but also a visual and symbolic one, where fabric becomes a medium of transformation.

construction debris covered with green fabric in Seoul, South Korea

green fabric covering land in Hainan, China

construction site in Seoul, South Korea

construction site in Seoul, South Korea

construction site in Shanghai, China

sea of green fabric in Seoul, South Korea

a vast territory covered with green and blue fabric in China

green fabric surrounds new towers in Beijing, China

mountains of stones covered with black fabric in Incheon, South Korea

project info:

name: Seas of Construction