The cabin
Nestled in a pine forest on the northern slope of the Sierra de Guadarrama, this pinewood cabin, built from local Valsaín timber, houses the dyeing workshop where pigments are extracted from various plants and yarns are dyed before being woven into the brand’s pieces.
With the help of Koto’s Emilio García Conde, craftsmanship has extended to architecture as well, creating a space of serenity and stillness for preparing natural dye vats and baths. With its simple and natural aesthetic, the cabin is small yet highly functional: within its 30 square meters, it accommodates all the elements and processes needed for dyeing our pieces.
Reviving forgotten practices is one of ÁBBATTE’s defining traits, especially the use of natural dyes. In the past, achieving a desired colour depended entirely on yarn suppliers, but today, ÁBBATTE produces some of its dyes from plants.
The natural dyeing process we carry out in the cabin is entirely plant-based. Dye extracts can come from many parts of the plant, roots, berries, bark, leaves, flowers, and more.
At ÁBBATTE, we usually dye the fibres after they’ve been spun but before they are woven, to ensure the colour is absorbed as evenly as possible.
The cabin itself is sustainable, echoing the spirit of Zach Klein (1982), who promotes the idea of building quiet, intentional places in his book Cabin Porn. As he puts it, a cabin represents a shift in lifestyle, a symbolic return to living offline instead of online. For those unwilling to embrace excess or unnecessary luxury, choosing sustainability opens as many paths as life itself.
Text: María Olmos Mochales
Photos: Pablo Gómez-Ogando