This week on Dezeen, two big projects were given the green light – the new tallest building in western Europe and controversial London viewing tower The Tulip.

Danish firm Dorte Mandrup won planning permission for a supertall skyscraper in the small town of Brande, Denmark.

Due for completion in 2023,  the 320-metre-high Bestseller Tower is set to become the tallest building in western Europe.

Meanwhile, The Tulip was waived through by the City of London's planning committee on Tuesday, after it concluded the 305-metre-high tower had potential to become an "architectural icon" for London.

Referred to by Norman Foster as "inevitably controversial", the tourist attraction will be characterised by a bulbous glass viewing platform wrapped with rotating pods. It is planned for completion in 2025.

In other architecture news, Snøhetta released visuals of a major new opera house in Shanghai, feature a giant spiral staircase roof, and the new Tottenham Hotspur football stadium hosted its first match in London.

Meanwhile, BIG revealed its plans for a park-covered highway on Brooklyn's waterfront, and unveiled a design of a conceptual floating city that could house 10,000 people.

The unpaid internship saga continued this week, as New York designer Karim Rashid stated that interns are "not employees" and that internships are a "fork of furthering education".

Architects and designers in Japan also defended unpaid roles, claiming that they are a "strong part of the social fabric" in the country.

In the US, Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Rockwell Group's cultural centre The Shed opened to the public, rounding off the first phase of the Hudson Yards development.

Also, David Adjaye completed the Ruby City contemporary art centre in Texas, which is wrapped by crimson concrete panels.

Milan design week came into the spotlight as designers started to reveal the collections they will be launching at the annual fair, which starts next Tuesday.

Alongside David Chipperfield's interpretation of the Moka espresso maker, visitors can expect to see recyclable chairs by Swedish studio Form Us With Love and volcanic stones lamps by Mexican designer David Pompa.

With hundreds of events also taking place, Dezeen's design editor Augusta Pownall also revealed her pick of the exhibitions not to miss.

In art news, street artist JR took to Paris to create a giant 3D optical illusion from paper, which imagined the iconic pyramid at the Musée du Louvre projecting out from a white crater. However it was destroyed within hours of being unveiled.

Elsewhere in the city, Christo was given permission to realise his plans to wrap the Arc de Triomphe in 25,000 square metres of recyclable fabric.

This week also saw the industry playing pranks in celebration of April Fool's Day.

While Dezeen fooled readers with a spoof story about a horn-shaped tower by Norman Foster, other architecture and design hoaxes included a gondola in Edinburgh and a dog-walking drone.

Popular projects this week included a distorted replica of a 19th-century London terrace block and a charred-timber-clad lake house extension near Munich.