This week on Dezeen, drone footage by aerial photography company Ot Sky showed that work has begun on the construction of The Line in Saudi Arabia, which is part of the country's Neom development.

Excavators can be seen digging trenches for the linear city, which is set to be 170 kilometres long, 500 metres tall and have a mirrored facade.

Dezeen commenters had doubted that the project, which experts have also been sceptical about, would go ahead, but the footage suggests work on The Line is now underway.

The release of the footage follows reports by human rights organisation ALQST that Saudi Arabia has reportedly sentenced to death three men who had been forcibly evicted from the Neom site.

Shadli al-Huwaiti, Ibrahim al-Huwaiti and Ataullah al-Huwaiti, who are members of the Huwaitat tribe, were sentenced to death after being "forcibly evicted and displaced to make way for the Neom megaproject", according to the organisation.

The winners of the Dezeen Awards public vote were revealed this week, with the winners of the prestigious studio category announced on Friday.

The public vote winners in the architecture, interiors, design, sustainability and media categories were revealed earlier in the week and included projects by studios all over the globe.

Human rights organisation Amnesty International has released a report ahead of the FIFA 2022 World Cup in Qatar stating that labour abuses are still happening "on a significant scale" despite "noticeable improvements" to migrant workers' conditions.

According to the report, numerous workers in the country are still "subjected to conditions that amount to forced labour".

"Although Qatar has made important strides on labour rights over the past five years, it's abundantly clear that there is a great distance still to go," said Steve Cockburn, head of economic and social justice at Amnesty International.

British studio Foster + Partners' supertall skyscraper 50 Hudson Yards opened in New York City this week. The 308-metre tall skyscraper will house offices for companies including Meta and was designed with a geometry that "respects the wider context of the New York street grid".

The studio also revealed its design for an upcoming Apple store at Battersea Power Station in London and a coral-reef-informed marine centre that will be located at the Amaala resort in Saudi Arabia.

In design news, luxury car brand Rolls Royce unveiled Spectre, its first fully electric car. The coupe was designed as the "spiritual successor" to the brand's current Phantom coupe.

It marks the start of Rolls Royce's transition to becoming fully electric by 2030 and is built on the same all-aluminium spaceframe architecture that Rolls Royce first developed for the Phantom.

Popular projects this week include a 120-year-old thatched cottage that was given a glass extension, a cow shed that was transformed into a library and a monumental hotel entirely powered by solar energy.

This week's lookbooks showcased staircases with statement balustrades and homes that feature classic Eames chairs.

This week on Dezeen

This week on Dezeen is our regular roundup of the week's top news stories. Subscribe to our newsletters to be sure you don't miss anything.