Romeo and Julia, two residential high-rises in Stuttgart, built 1954-59 and designed by Hans Scharoun (1893-1972), constitute the most original and far-reaching of the various attempts to re-design the entire 'process of living' that this extraordinary protagonist of Germany's modern architecture undertook. Over decades, Scharoun had woven an extensive network of research and knowledge systems as a basis for his floor-plan designs. His unpublished writings and, even more importantly, his lectures from between 1947 and 1958 reveal the countless threads of research and discourse, which his work in residential architecture referenced and absorbed. They highlight the sometimes contradictory, yet constant renewal and consolidation of his knowledge in the field of housing. This new book, based on extensive research in collaboration with Berlin's Akademie der Kunste, demonstrates how closely interlocked Romeo and Julia are with their architect's immense engagement with the topic of housing. Drawing on previously unpublished archive material held at the Akademie der Kunste, the authors for the first time allow the reader an insight into Scharoun's design process. Alongside reproductions of original plans and drawings, the book features excerpts from Scharoun's unpublished text fragments. New images by Swiss architectural photographer Georg Aerni, illustrating the two towers' highly expressive appearance, round out this volume.

The built work of Hans Scharoun (1893- 1972) has already been honored many times, but his sensational drawings with utopian contents have only been considered cursorily and his pioneering drawings as a pupil and student have not been a focus at all. Over 1,000 free sketches and drawings by Scharoun that are not connected with concrete building projects and were produced between 1909 - his time at school in Bremerhaven - and the end of the Second World War take center stage. Analyses of new sources now facilitate a first overall classification of his visions put down on paper. The publication honors the work of the architect, who was the first postwar president of the West-Berlin Akademie der Kunste, in the fiftieth anniversary of his death.