things i've made — eugene korsunskiy

treehouse

description and more photos coming soon!

construction photos and story at instagram.com/kateandeugene

house

for years, kate and i had a dream of building our own house. and while we decided that the job of physically building it should go to people who actually know what they're doing, we did get to design the thing.

this is a project about which i can talk incessantly, so for your sake i'll restrain myself.

our house was built by the great crew at sweeney designbuild, and photographed here by ryan bent.

construction photos

photo © ryan bent

view of camel's hump

photo © ryan bent

staircase to the loft

photo © ryan bent

big room + dog

photo © ryan bent

kitchen

photo © ryan bent

the loft

photo © ryan bent

sketchup file

in progress

plenty more construction photos here.

one thing every day in 2014

i promised myself that in 2014 i will make one thing—big or small—every day.

december 31!

a quickly-eaten beets and goat cheese salad (with mom).

december 30

slides for a workshop.

december 29

a set of stickers for a design project.

december 28

slides for class.

december 27

a logo for a friend.

december 26

a drawing.

december 25

a scotch tape box.

december 24

gingerbread cookies (with kate).

december 23

spice cookies (with kate).

december 22

a paper airplane.

december 21

a budget-friendly finger puppet.

december 20

a handout for a workshop.

december 19

poached eggs.

december 18

roasted sweet potatoes.

december 17

roasted veggie salad (with kate).

december 16

a set of handouts for a workshop.

december 15

asian slaw (with kate).

december 14

a burrito bowl.

december 13

breakfast tacos.

december 12

a worksheet.

december 11

a draft of an assignment handout.

december 10

staircase inspiration boards.

december 9

a draft of a handout.

december 8

a peanut pyramid.

december 7

more maple walnut cookies (with kate).

december 6

a draft of a cover for a handout.

december 5

a collection of ideas about design in education (with victor, aaron, eli, steve, david, and henry).

december 4

a napkin creature.

december 3

a plastic bag airplane.

december 2

a draft of a workbook.

december 1

a cabbage salad.

november 30

the rest of the house outline.

november 29

mashed potatoes.

november 28

a banana peanut butter sandwich.

november 27

a pie (with jenn, jacob, and kate).

november 27

the start of a house outline (with kate).

november 25

squash calzones again.

november 24

a cover for a booklet.

november 23

a roasted veggie salad (with kate).

november 22

maple walnut cookies (with kate).

november 21

pasta with chard (with kate).

november 20

an under-bed lighting solution.

november 19

a semester course schedule.

november 18

a quick poster.

november 17

squash tacos (with kate).

november 16

roasted blue hubbard squash.

november 15

poached egg sandwiches.

november 14

inspiration collages.

november 13

a talk on creativity in education.

november 12

animation mock-ups for a short video.

november 11

squash and spinach calzones (with kate).

november 10

roasted kubocha squash.

november 9

lentil stew (with kate).

november 8

butternut squash soup.

november 7

more slides for a presentation.

november 6

more sketches for a staircase design.

november 5

one slide for a presentation.

november 4

slides for a workshop.

november 3

a stir fry (with kate).

november 2

roasted rutabaga.

november 1

oatmeal pumpkin cookies (with kate).

october 31

a list of topics to cover in class.

october 30

sketches for a staircase/storage design.

october 29

a room setup for a workshop.

october 28

a website for a class.

october 27

a workshop presentation.

october 26

a schedule of classes.

october 24

a set of name tags.

october 23

a set of posters.

october 25

squash and blue cheese calzones (with kate)

october 22

a spreadsheet.

october 21

kits of supplies for a workshop activity.

october 20

a prototype of a booklet.

october 19

a tiny ice cream sandwich.

october 18

notes for a conference.

october 17

a large poster.

october 16

another apple and gouda sandwich.

october 15

a poster for a workshop.

october 14

a slide deck for a workshop.

october 13

an apple and gouda sandwich.

october 12

a slide deck for a workshop.

october 11

a promo poster for a class.

october 10

accidentally-too-spicy carrot soup (with kate).

october 9

roasted squash salad (with kate).

october 8

a webpage for a week of events.

october 7

a tofu salad (with kate).

october 6

a poster for a week of events.

october 5

a frittata (with kate).

october 4

apple crisp (with kate).

october 3

meeting notes and doodles.

october 2

meeting notes.

october 1

a roasted vegetable salad (with kate).

september 30

a logo for a week of events.

september 29

sketches for a barn.

september 28

lentil stew (with kate).

september 27

scrambled eggs (with kate).

september 26

a template for working out staircase design ideas.

september 25

the first draft of a course structure.

september 24

a semester calendar.

september 23

a rice and beans and poached eggs dish (with kate).

september 22

a tofu stir fry (with kate).

september 21

another window placement diagram.

september 20

a shelving construction diagram.

september 19

a window placement diagram.

september 18

a tentative course schedule.

september 17

a slaw salad.

september 16

custom graph paper.

september 15

roasted potatoes with dill (with kate).

september 14

cheesy tomato pasta (with kate).

september 13

a vaguely asian salad (with kate).

september 12

a makeshift camping dog-warming system (with kate).

september 11

a vaguely greek salad (with kate).

september 10

a vaguely mexican salad (with kate).

september 9

a party reminder.

september 8

mint tea.

september 7

another pizza.

september 6

maple oatmeal bread (with kate).

september 5

a furniture arrangement diagram.

september 4

a salad (with kate).

september 3

a party invitation.

september 2

pizza.

september 1

a salt shaker out of a hot sauce bottle.

august 31

a spread of snacks (with kate, joe, polo, david, and claire).

august 30

corn salsa (with kate, joe, polo, david, and claire).

august 29

farro with zucchini (with kate).

august 28

eggplant & tomato pasta (with kate).

august 27

interview notes.

august 26

a pair of matching tables.

august 25

hanging cardboard idea boards.

august 24

maple oatmeal bread (with kate).

august 23

a stir fry (with kate).

august 22

a semester course meeting calendar.

august 21

a chick pea salad (with kate).

august 20

a toilet paper airplane.

august 19

temporary business cards.

august 18

a 30-second alligator drawing.

august 17

a bed platform.

august 16

a quarter arch.

august 15

a desk.

august 14

a drawing in a soap.

august 13

a poached egg salad.

august 12

a credenza.

august 11

a painted wall (with kate).

august 10

a mimosa the lifespan of which did not outlast the camera shutter.

august 9

mango craisin granola bars (with mom).

august 8

a banana chip arch.

august 7

a house out of a goji berry.

august 6

a 30-second drawing of a bunny.

august 5

a doggy dining table.

august 4

a salad (with kate).

august 3

cardboard boxes for closet organization.

august 2

a closet organizing system.

august 1

a mass of cardboard detritus from furniture assembly (with kate).

july 31

a train of shopping carts at ikea (4 not including the couch) (with kate).

july 30

sketches of a bed design idea.

july 29

a plan for turning a piece of plywood into 5 tables (with kate).

july 28

a paper puppet monster.

july 27

an arrangement of shelves and furniture in kate's office (with kate).

july 26

a hummus dinner (with kate).

july 25

a workshop evaluation sheet.

july 24

a wall collage out of brainstorming panels (with the lever interns).

july 23

a yoda quote out of scrabble tiles.

july 22

slides for the third day of a week-long design thinking workshop.

july 21

a wall of quotes and observations (with the lever interns).

july 20

slides for the first day of a week-long design thinking workshop.

july 19

a rough draft of a new sparktruck diagram.

july 17

handles for clay stamps for a kids' design activity.

july 17

a cardboard base for staging the setup for a kids' design activity.

july 16

an ipad stand out of legos.

july 15

licenses for sparktruck teacher corps members.

july 14

new sparktruck t-shirts (with katie and evelyn).

july 13

laser-cut name tags for sparktruck teacher corps workshop participants.

july 12

a picnic (with kate, david, and becca), which i was too busy consuming to photograph.

july 11

a set of thank-you cards.

july 10

a fruit cairn.

july 9

a webpage of sparktruck lesson-planning resources for teachers.

july 8

an agenda and notes for a week-long design workshop.

july 7

instructions handout for a sparktruck teacher corps activity.

july 6

a word out of berries.

july 5

blueberry pancakes (with kate).

july 4

peach and blueberry cobbler (with kate and vida).

july 3

template for the sparktruck teacher corps member id cards.

july 2

a quesadilla.

july 1

veggie tacos (with kate).

earlier stuff:

squarespace doesn't let you have 365 images on a single page, so click here for january-june.

life design method cards

to help our students remember and own the ideas and tools that they learned in "designing your life" and "designing your stanford," i created this take-away deck of cards. each card distills one nugget of material that we cover in class. "dyl" has 43 cards; "dys" has 28.

the first edition was printed and distributed to students in both classes at the end of fall quarter 2013.

they are still given to every student who takes the class.

sparktruck

sparktruck started as my masters project in the stanford design program.

knowing next to nothing about formal education, my friends and i set out to bring back creative, hands-on learning to school. we designed a curriculum of workshops and a truck to deliver them, ran a kickstarter campaign to fund it all, and in the summer of 2012 drove all across the country to inspire teachers to use more open-ended problem-solving techniques in their classrooms.

didi eruçman joined the trip and made a short documentary film about the adventures.

in 2013, we came back to stanford and recruited a new group of students to take over the truck. they made it their own and took it on its second annual transcontinental voyage, reaching thousands more kids across the usa.

after five years of residing at the d.school's k12 lab, where it worked with bay area teachers to bring maker education into more classrooms, the truck was adopted by southern methodist university in 2017, where it now runs maker education initiatives in the dallas, tx area.

awards
fast company innovation by design award
maker faire educator's choice, 2013
maker faire editor's choice, 2012

mentions in the media

we are the seven billion

in october 2011, the human population of our planet reached 7,000,000,000 people.

kyle williams and i wanted to understand the magnitude of this number, so we had an idea: we would represent all the people in the world with a pile of rice, one grain per person.

we discovered, after performing some calculations, that this would require about 383,604 pounds of rice. so we scaled down and built a representation of the world's population at a scale of 1 grain of rice = 1,000 people.

(after the week-long installation, we donated the rice to the chickens on stanford's farm.)

awards
stanford sica grant

the ball chain project

one time during your two years in design grad school at stanford, they let you forget all practical implications of your work, and just for one crazy two-week project called "personal statements," do whatever you want.

so i built an 8-foot cube made out of 10,000 feet of suspended ball chain. it was fun to watch people play with it.

this is what i wrote when asked to describe the project in one sentence:

"i think that the greatest appreciation for the world and the things it's made of can be gained by meticulously setting up conditions in which the laws of chance, or of fate or physics, are allowed to play out as they will."

after its original installation at stanford in december 2011, i packed it up and brought it to maker faire 2012.

in 2014, the choreographer robert moses used it as a set piece in his dance performance, "profligate iniquities." in 2015, he created an expanded version for the performance of “SILT.” in 2022, he incorporated a new version of the piece in the performance of “The Soft Solace of a Slightly Descended Lost Life (Suck It).“

check out the 2-minute video here of highlights from the “silt” dance performance.

and here is a 47-second video promo for the 2022 “soft solace” dance performance.

awards
isadora duncan dance award (nominee), 2016
maker faire editor's choice, 2012

video: The Ball Chain Project at Maker Faire

used as a set piece by choreographer robert moses

personal statements reception at stanford

installing at maker faire

installed at maker faire

the bike circle of death

my friends and i got tired of watching bicyclists go the wrong way in the campus roundabouts, and repeatedly escaping near-death among the myriad of daily collisions that ensues.

so one day, we staged a series of interventions that attempted to gently correct this behavior.

collaborators
aaron peck
albert leung
cameron jue
justin fraga
kyle williams
prat ganapathy

intervention #1: "assholes/cool people"

we augmented the small rotary signs with our larger, more colorful versions. the most exciting part of this one was watching passersby spontaneously get into the action and start heckling violators.

video: feedback from campus security

intervention #2: crowd barriers

then we decided to try physical crowd control. here is a scale maquette.

intervention #3: the death metal bike demon

justin (pro cyclist) + skull mask + yellow speedo + blasting death metal = no one went the wrong way.

i really love the pink ipod shuffle here.

video: death metal bike demon

intervention #4: jousting

thinking about ways to take the bike demon idea to the next level, we thought about implementing a jouster who would ride around and knock violating cyclists off their bikes. then we decided this would be too violent, but prototyped the idea anyway.

video: jousting

intervention #5: one-way speed bump

we prototyped lots of versions of this idea, but decided that a greater budget and timeline is required for more testing and implementation. this prototype employs two rat traps as springs.

this is a passive, non-articulating version.

we cast this one out of concrete.

it survived exactly one test ride before shattering.

unrealized concept #1: encouraging led screen

would have required a lot of electronics.

unrealized concept #2: rotating platform

an airport moving walkway meets a merry-go-round.

unrealized concept #3: revolving door

one of our favorites.

unrealized concept #4: the vortex of terror and safety

we had a long debate about whether we could procure industrial fans strong enough to pull this one off. i was optimistic.

video: glowing review

we caught a few alumni and asked them what they thought of the interventions.

design program orientation

i had the joy and honor of planning and leading orientation week for the incoming first-years in the stanford graduate design program in the fall of 2011.

i used the opportunity to get really familiar with adobe illustrator. we're good friends now.

high-resolution booklet (pdf)
high-resolution poster (jpg)

orientation info pamphlet

the crux of the project was this accordion-folded booklet with important (and not-so-important) information about the week's events.

cloud lamp

to this day i can't understand why people in need of light therapy for seasonal affective disorder (s.a.d.) have to put up with things that look like toasters or humidifiers on their desks.

so i set out to make a happy lamp that actually looks happy.

i enjoy the notion of sunshine emanating from a cloud (or least a funky pixellated rendition of one). version 2 of this lamp will be suspended above my head in the studio, so i can have full-spectrum sunshine even on cloudy days.

magnetic blocks

for my first foray into the world of laser-cutting, i made a (grownup) kids' toy that combines my fascination with magnets and my love of stacking things.

each of these blocks is a truncated tetrahedron with magnets attached under its hexagonal faces. born of necessity, the interlocking tabs with laser-charred edges became one of my favorite parts of the blocks' aesthetic.

one-page bible

i wanted to see how the most popular book in history would look when printed on a single sheet of paper. this is the entire text of the king james bible, set in 3pt type and printed on a 36" scroll that's about 17 feet long.

(i measured the wall after i made the print, and was pleasantly surprised to find about an inch of clearance on each side).

it looks a light grey rectangle from far away, begins to resemble tv static on approach, and is fully legible up close. presented in this way, most of what has shaped western civilization for the past 2000 years seems at once both entirely accessible and hopelessly overwhelming.

this project inspired my classmate ben kolesar to create a one-page bible kickstarter campaign.

awards
berkshire art association fellowship, 2008

posters

grad school: year two

highlights of the work done in my second year of the stanford design program.

design program orientation schedule

made for the stanford design program's orientation week 2011, which i co-organized and ran with albert leung.

make-your-own sparktruck poster

made for sparktruck's kickstarter backers.

design exhibition 2012

made for the stanford design program's end-of-year art exhibition, in which i participated.

fort

longing again for the sense of shelter and security sought in my childhood's pillow-fort construction projects, i decided to revisit this method of escaping from reality.

armed this time with power tools, i built a small chamber that provides for one person a quiet space in which to contemplate life, or for a few friends a setting for peaceful conversation.

having to crawl in on one's knees requires checking the adult world at the door, and the installed blacklight and 300 christmas lights help to create an otherworldly atmosphere.

january 2007.