This place used to be a factory for electrical devices (FAE) led by an engineer and co-founder of the Polish Electricians’ Society Kazimierz Szpotański. It was built between 1928-36. The colossal factory produced transformers and also x-ray machines! Some of its achievements were known worldwide and even sent to technology exhibitions.
Today in this building there is one of Warsaw’s best known private universities for humanities, SWPS (School of Social Psychology). Whenever I see the building (which is not very often as it is situated quite far away from the main street of Praga), I can’t stop myself from thinking how strange and incongruous this is with the previous business located here. Szpotański built up a company producing technical items, now it is transformed into a social science lab producing ideas.
This change (and many changes you can find around in Praga) provides evidence for Praga’s rapid commercial development and its progressiveness. And the factory is also a nice piece of pre-war architecture.
