®Jakko Woudenberg · Dutch Wood Artist
Not a floor. A monument in wood — made once, for one place on earth.
Monumental art floors for buildings that refuse to be ordinary. Award-winning. International. One commission at a time.
®Monumental art floors for buildings that refuse to be ordinary. Award-winning. International. One commission at a time.
Every art floor has a reason why it exists.
I don't make floors to fill a space. Each work starts from an idea. Something about the place, the people who'll stand on it, the story a building wants to tell. That's what separates an art floor from a design floor: it means something, and it keeps meaning it long after it's laid. It's why no two are alike, and why a space that holds one is never quite the same again. It creates an emotion. A feeling.
NWFA Convention, Orlando 2026, with part of the sponsors who made it possible to bring The Night Watch in Wood to the United States.
Created by Jakko Woudenberg, The Night Watch in Wood is a monumental contemporary interpretation of Rembrandt's iconic masterpiece. Every pixel individually selected and placed by hand, cut diagonally from face grain wood to reveal the grain at its most expressive.
Measuring 535 × 425 × 18 cm, the artwork occupies more than 20 square metres. Its modular construction allows both horizontal and vertical exhibition. Presented horizontally, it becomes a stage. An artwork that can be performed on, spoken from, and stood upon.
Unlike the original in the Rijksmuseum, which was cut down on all four sides in 1715 to fit its new location in Amsterdam's Town Hall, The Night Watch in Wood shows the complete composition as Rembrandt intended it.
More than a tribute, it tells two stories at once. Rembrandt's masterpiece and Jakko's perspective on it. About connection, craftsmanship, creativity, adventure, and the universal human desire to be seen.
From a distance, you recognise the masterpiece. Up close, you discover the craftsmanship behind it.
Old Icelandic for intuition.
Created for the headquarters of Krinkels in collaboration with Paul de Ruiter Architects, INSSAEI transforms the story of a company into something you can walk across.
Each growth ring represents a year in Krinkels' existence. Together, they form a living timeline of ambition, setbacks, achievements and renewal.
Because growth is never a straight line. It expands, season after season, shaped by challenges, decisions and the people who leave their mark along the way.
Named after the Old Icelandic word for intuition, INSSAEI is a reminder that the most meaningful creations do not emerge from calculations alone. They begin with the courage to trust what cannot yet be explained.
Growth made visible.
Ring by ring.
Year by year.
Jakko Woudenberg is a Dutch master parquet craftsman, monumental artist and member of the Dutch Guild of Parquet Layers. His work has been exhibited internationally — from Amsterdam to Orlando, recognized with the Vakwerk Award, WFB Design Award and CFJ Award.
Not from plans, but from intuition. Every commission starts with a conversation about what a space should hold, what it should make people feel. The answer becomes the work. And because it comes from that specific moment, it can never be repeated or copied.
Craft dies when it is kept to yourself. Jakko believes in sharing knowledge: with the next generation, with colleagues, with anyone willing to learn. Not out of obligation, but because the trade gets better when everyone does.
Everything expensive is for sale. What I make is not. It does not exist until I make it for you. Once it exists, it belongs to one place on earth, forever. This is not a product. It is a decision.
Made to fit a space and make it beautiful. It serves the room and it can be repeated endlessly, in a thousand buildings at once, because it carries no story of its own.
Decoration · repeatableBegins with a why. It tells a story and moves something in the person standing on it. And because that story belongs to one place and one moment, it can never be repeated, never reproduced.
Meaning · one of oneA design floor can be repeated. This cannot. That is the difference between decoration and art.
A building has no soul without its floor. I make that floor tell your story. Woven into the wood itself, the way INSSAEI carries one ring for every year a company has existed. It keeps telling that story, every day, long after I am gone.
A space that holds a Dutch Wood Artist floor is no longer one of many. It becomes the reason people visit, photograph, and remember. Not a purchase. A landmark.
Skilled hands exist. I work alongside them. What is rare is the rest: imagining what has never been made, the nerve to begin without knowing the way, and building a story through the process itself. That is where my work begins, and it cannot be copied.
Every work is born from a single, unrepeatable moment. Conceived for your space, shaped to its lines, and made once. It will never be repeated, never reproduced, never found anywhere else on earth.
I don't fit the categories, and I stopped trying to. Not a floor layer, not a designer, not quite a gallery artist. What I make sits somewhere of its own. Monumental, walkable artworks in solid wood, each one starting from a why instead of a pattern. There's nothing to compare it to, and that's exactly the point. The work stands on its own. That's exactly the point.
It also means you do not need to know how this works before you begin. You bring a place, a question, or simply the feeling that something here should be unrepeatable. The rest is mine to carry.
You tell me about the place. What it is, what it should hold, what you want people to feel the moment they walk in. No brief required. Just honesty about what matters.
I translate that into a vision. Shaped to your space, your light, your story. You see exactly where it is going before a single piece of wood is cut. No surprises.
Built by hand, from solid wood, for one place on earth. Most commissions take between three and twelve months. When it is finished, it cannot be repeated or reproduced. It is yours, permanently.
Trusted by architects including Paul de Ruiter. Built for headquarters, museums and private spaces that understand the difference between a floor and a statement.
A worldwide movement Jakko founded to connect craftspeople across borders. Every participant creates a panel and commits to helping three others. No ego, no money. Just skill, passed forward. Because the best things in craft were never built alone.
About the projectIkigai is the Japanese philosophy of finding your reason for being. Feng shui is the ancient Chinese art of creating harmony between people and their space. Gemikigai brings both into the floor beneath your feet.
In developmentJakko AI can make mistakes. Always verify important information.
