Like a red string, our meeting with Kabin Kebun began since the beginning of Pable’s birth, where the owner of Kabin Kebun, Teh Ukke, bought Pable’s products in 2019, because she felt she had found a fashion product that represented the values she upheld. In 2025, Pable then visited Kabin Kebun, and explored its story while sitting in the breezy cabin.
Kabin Kebun is an inn managed by one family; Teh Ukke, her husband, Om Ucok, and their only child, Niar. The cabin is open to visitors every weekend, and is always full of visitors who always have to make advance-bookings to get the chance to stay at Kabin Kebun. Since 2019, there have been at least 1500-2000 visitors who have experienced staying and doing other activities provided by Kabin Kebun.
Teh Ukke’s small family used to have a life that tended to be the same as the lives of other people in the Capital City; having a house in the middle of the city, a stable office job, and a modern lifestyle. One day Niar, their child, asked a question anda demand that she got from her activity of reading books; did her parents realize that their generation -the boomer generation, generation X- was an exploitative and destructive generation? Everything is done in the name of development and profit, but forgetting to return to nature. Teh Ukke took this demand and protest seriously, which made her think; is being exploitative and destructive the only way to achieve happiness in life?
From there Teh Ukke and her family slowly redefined their lifestyle. Then after a long discussion and aligning their thoughts, in 2016 they agreed to leave the Capital City and move to a small village in Cisarua. Of course, the sacrifices made were not small. Even after setting up a guesthouse, the income earned was only 40% of the income in the capital. However, this taught this small family one important thing; with the right lifestyle, desires and needs can be managed well. The consumptive lifestyle in the capital gives rise to the need for many material things, while something that Teh Ukke and her family have learned since living in the village is; in essence, humans do not need too much to be happy. Enough is good.
The right lifestyle is slow living. Teh Ukke emphasizes how the term slow living is often misinterpreted as lazy living, a life that is only suitable for senior citizens. According to Teh Ukke, slow living is about mindful lifestyle. Living at a fast pace gives birth to decisions that are not thought through carefully. Especially with consumerist behaviour, we have been conditioned to immediately buy anything for whatever reason; while it is still trendy, while it is still on discount, while we want it, we might not have other opportunities. Slow living teaches us to step back for a moment, then think about what is the purpose of each things we buy? Is it really needed, or is the need deliberately created? Then, when we are finished using it, will it be thrown away?
Often in a consumerist life that follows trends quickly, we sometimes fail to define ourselves and tend to let others define us. We are framed to think that our personality is shaped by momentary trends, that if we don’t follow them immediately, we will be labeled as losing our identity. In fact, on the contrary, tiptoeing from one trend to another makes us confused. The reason for slow living or slowing down is also to take back control over ourselves; because every action is taken with full awareness. Is this trendy item really in accordance with our personality? Is it necessary? Pable’s conversation with Teh Ukke flows through issues that are much bigger than just a slow living lifestyle; climate crisis, self-autonomy, economic systems, and so on.
According to Teh Ukke, the idiom “time is money” leads people into a trap, that being fast means being better. In fact, anything that is obtained quickly or instantly is most likely disposable, for example: fashion. The faster something is remade, of course the faster the old item will be thrown away. This needs to be a shared concern. Unfortunately, not many people understand this.
This is also what made Teh Ukke develop an alternative economic system called Solidarity Economy, as part of the resistance to the current economic system; the destructive and exploitative capitalism, as Niar said. Evidence of the status quo clearly shows that the capitalist economic system makes people greedy and never feel satisfied so they continue to ask for more. Creating earth-polluting machines to make businesses more “productive” and carrying out mass production to increase profits will not go hand-in-hand with businesses like Pable, she said, as well as her own Kabin Kebun. Teh Ukke believes that there must be a challenge to this kind of economic system.
Teh Ukke’s cabin was designed by sense by the family, but built with the help of 12 of her neighbors. In its construction, only old materials were used, using new materials as little as possible. This simplicity is what makes it different. When making the cabin, the manufacturing process is reversed; not from a design-to-materials like other buildings, but materials that are already available are used for construction. That is the reason why the cabin design is unique and does not follow a certain style, because Teh Ukke does not want to create new needs. This more or less has the same spirit as Pable; Pable processes fabric from used cloth that is grouped by color, so the results of each production will depend on the condition of the used cloth used. The process is called asset-based thinking, producing something more sustainable because it does not create new demand.
Teh Ukke touched on how the culture of sorting waste has not yet become a culture in Indonesian society, even though household waste is harmfully abundant. So at Kabin Kebun, visitors are invited to separate household waste, where later inorganic waste such as paper waste will be used for home-scale recycled paper materials made by Om Ucok. The results amazed visitors. Not only that, visitors are also allowed to pick from the garden, so they can feel the happiness of consuming fresh organic vegetables or fruit directly from the soil. The involvement of visitors in every aspect of Teh Ukke’s slow living and family is what makes the experience of staying at Kabin Kebun very valuable and rare.
Pable felt like we were reflecting when we saw, heard, and felt the story of Kabin Kebun, because our similarities were clear and real: Pable and Kabin Kebun promote care work for humans, knowledge, and the Earth. These values produce a more holistic & circular perspective on human life on earth; we must do good to others, and to the land we live on.
