Nearly 5,000 m² of learning, technology and connection. WSB University’s International Campus

WSB University will bring one of the most recognisable and most neglected parts of Dąbrowa Górnicza back to life. On the site of the former DEFUM Machine Tool Factory, at Konopnicka and Kolejowa Streets, the Global Knowledge Hub Educational and Social Centre will be created—an openly accessible building where children will cultivate bacteria on Petri dishes, senior citizens will learn to recognise online scams, and every resident will be able to enter the inside of their own artery wearing VR goggles. The investment will become one of the pillars of the Factory Full of Life.

The Global Knowledge Hub of WSB University in a post-industrial setting
The area at Konopnicka and Kolejowa Streets is part of the former DEFUM Dąbrowa Machine Tool Factory, a place which for decades was one of the symbols of industrial Dąbrowa Górnicza. Today, there are two unused buildings there and a partially damaged car park. One of the buildings will be demolished due to its technical condition. The other, a two-storey building, will be incorporated by the University into the new facility, so a fragment of the factory’s history will physically remain within the new structure.

Inside the Global Knowledge Hub
The building will cover approximately 4,800 m² and will be divided into two parts. The administrative and promotional segment will include organisational facilities, conference rooms and coworking spaces. However, the heart of the project will be the social and educational segment, spread across three thematic floors.

“The ground floor will include an entrance area with a café, a multifunctional auditorium for 140 people, and sensory laboratories, where learning about health ceases to be theory from a textbook. Instead of reading about hygiene, residents will cultivate bacteria on a Petri dish after touching it with an unwashed hand, check under UV light how effectively they disinfect their hands, and measure how much sugar is really contained in popular beverages. One floor above, technology will be in full swing. Wearing VR goggles, visitors will be able to ‘fly’ inside an artery and see how cholesterol accumulates there. Special suits that place strain on joints and restrict vision-ageing simulators-will allow younger people to understand what senior citizens face on a daily basis,” explains Professor Zdzisława Dacko-Pikiewicz, Rector of WSB University. Separate workshops will focus on the human biological clock and digital hygiene, showing how screen light disrupts sleep and recovery.

A real ambulance as a teaching aid
Another exceptional feature of the building will be a first-aid education room with an entrance gate through which an authentic ambulance will be driven inside. Not as an exhibit behind glass, but as a prop for realistic CPR and first-aid exercises for children, young people, adults and senior citizens. This solution is known from the best science centres, including the Copernicus Science Centre in Warsaw.

A university open to all generations
The Global Knowledge Hub has been designed so that its doors are open to the full cross-section of the Zagłębie region’s residents. The youngest participants will attend the Children’s University, with artificial intelligence and virtual reality modules, as well as nature workshops. Young adults will have access to prototyping laboratories with 3D printing and VR/AR technology, hackathons and mental resilience training. Professionally active people will find work-life balance workshops and practical courses in new technologies.

A separate, extensive offer has been prepared for senior citizens. The Digital Academy for Seniors will teach them how to use smartphones, tablets and VR technology, but above all how to stay safe online: how to recognise internet scams, protect their data and shop safely online. This will be complemented by intergenerational meetings, during which young people and senior citizens will digitise family photographs together or learn how to use a phone.

The element bringing everything together will be the WSB University Science Festival - an openly accessible event organised for many years, featuring lectures, experiments, technology demonstrations and educational games, also streamed online for viewers outside the city.

Openness embedded in the architecture
The project’s creators have also ensured accessibility. The building will include quiet and rest rooms for people with special needs, sanitary facilities adapted for people with disabilities, and coworking spaces open to residents, volunteers, local non-governmental organisations and entrepreneurs.

New life for the city centre
For Dąbrowa Górnicza, this is a change that goes far beyond a single investment. The degraded post-industrial area will gain a permanent public function, and the Reden city centre will gain a modern location for meetings, learning and integration. For WSB University, the Global Knowledge Hub will, in turn, serve as a showcase demonstrating that the University is able not only to educate students, but also to genuinely transform the city in which it operates.