This week, the gender pay gap was in the spotlight as architecture firms including Zaha Hadid Architects and Hawkins\Brown joined 10,000 companies with 250 or more employees across the UK to publish salary data.

Out of the 14 architecture practices that reported their data, Hawkins\Brown emerged as the only one of the UK's largest architecture practices with a gender pay gap better than the country average of 9.7 per cent.

Zaha Hadid Architects, now led by Patrik Schumacher, also revealed its gender pay gap data this week, with figures at the firm showing a difference in pay of 19.6 per cent between men and women.

The firm explained that the pay gap was due to a greater number of men in senior positions at the company.

Driverless vehicles also hit the headlines this week, as Tesla confirmed that Wei Huang, a 38-year-old Apple software engineer, had been killed in a fatal crash while riding in a Model X, which was operating in autopilot mode.

Elsewhere, Jaguar revealed a partnership with Google's autonomous car company Waymo, which involves the British company designing a 20,000 fleet of I-Pace models for the ride-hailing service by 2022.

In architecture news, Dezeen learned that Peter Madsen, the Danish inventor on trial for the murder of journalist Swedish journalist Kim Wall, had worked with BIG on the ring-blowing chimney for their Copenhagen power plant.

In Los Angeles, plans were approved to demolish a modernist bank by Kurt Meyer, to make space for Frank Gehry's mixed-use complex on the city's Sunset Strip.

Populous was in the news, as they released the first images of an 18,000-seat spherical arena set to host both music and esports events in East London.

The venue specialist also unveiled plans for "North America's first esports stadium" in Texas, with a competition area, broadcast studio and hospitality suites all detailed in the proposal.

Afrofuturism was at the forefront this week, as African designers, architects and filmmakers spoke to Dezeen about the positive affect of Marvel movie Black Panther on the perception of the continent's design, fashion and technology industries.

In turn, Dezeen rounded up 10 architects and designers that are currently championing the movement, including architect Diébédo Francis Kéré and fashion designer Lisa Folawiyo.

Popular projects on Dezeen this week included a narrow concrete house in Chile facing out towards the Pacific Ocean, a monochrome house-like installation in Brooklyn made up of seven single-coloured rooms and an internet-connected writing robot by Italian architect Carlo Ratti.

Top image courtesy of ThoroughlyReviewed