Airbnb—a community hospitality provider—has collaborated with four design studios—Studioilse, Jasper Morrison, Patternity, and Raw Edges—for smart contemporary house designs for the upcoming London Design Festival. The event that is centered on the «new way of living» theme—it will reveal fresh takes on affordable yet stylish pop-up houses. The concepts will be on display in Trafalgar Square from September 13-21 during the Festival

Why to buy something if you need it for a limited time only? It’s much easier (and more rational) to share underused assets instead of purchasing and owning them individually. The past few years have witnessed the rise of what’s called the sharing (share or shared, collaborative, peer, access) economy which implies collaborative consumption of physical, virtual and intellectual goods. The new model of consumer relationship emerges at the intersection of online social networking, mobile technology and the social movement that comes as a response to the reduction in purchasing power. While the concept of the sharing economy seems to be clear, it needs some detailing. Why is the sharing economy good to people? What threats to traditional business can it pose? Does the collaborative consumption have a potential to become a consumer religion of tomorrow? 

Have your say, share your thoughts on this article written by Greg Taylor, Director of Brand Provocation at Elmwood, London

General strikes are taking place in Portugal with anti-fascist and Carnation Revolution chants outside the National Assembly. In the UK, unemployment is now at 2.62 million, a 17-year high. And because there is not enough cash in the Eurozone bailout fund, fear persists that the Italian debt crisis on top of that of Greece, Portugal and Ireland could sink the Euro. All this has led us to the rather shocking statement from the IMF’s head, Christine Lagarde, that we’re moving towards a ‘lost decade’, not just in Europe but globally.  Her optimistic call to action is for us to act boldly, and together. It seems we cannot carry on as before. We need a new way of doing things, a new currency for a new society.