Gary Rohrbacher

Associate Professor

Gary Rohrbacher is a co-founder of Filson and Rohrbacher, an architecture, design, and fabrication practice that’s dedicated to digital craftsmanship and the challengeof transforming digital designs into physical reality. His research involves designing and producing furniture, objects and spaces with an approach that combines machining technique, design thinking and hands-on making.

He co-founded AtFAB, an open-source line of digitally fabricated furniture that is a recognized pioneer in distributed manufacturing, and co-authored Make: Design for CNC Furniture Projects and Fabrication Technique. Rohrbacher’s furniture and installations have been featured in architecture and design publications, as well as business and popular media. His work has been exhibited in significant national and international design venues, including het Nieuwe Institute in the Netherlands, TheDesign Society Museum in Shenzhen, China, Der Schweizerische Nationalmuseum in Switzerland, and acquired by France’s Centre National Arts Plastiques for its permanent collection. 

For over a decade, Prof. Rohrbacher has also led a research program funded by the US Dept of Energy through Kentucky’s Research Consortium on Energy and Environment and UK’s Center for Applied Energy Research. He has collaborated with students and scientists, to design and produce physical models, public exhibitions, communications strategy and web design, in service to the US DoE’s environmental remediation of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant site in western Kentucky.

Rohrbacher is an NCARB registered architect and holds degrees from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (SMArchS), Columbia University (MArch), and Lehigh University (BA). Prior to joining the University of Kentucky in 2009, he was recognized for his teaching excellence at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, California College of the Arts, and University of Texas at Austin. In 2016, he was named University Research Professor at UK.