In 1997, 9 + 1 - Ten Young Dutch Architectural Offices was on show at the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAl) as a series of ten individual exhibitions. The sequence of offices was: MAX architectuur en stedenbouw b.v., MVRDV, VMX Architecten, Marx & Steketee, Rene' van Zuuk, Endry van Veizen, Bosch en Haslett, NOX Architecten, NL architects and Buro Schie. Each of the ten offices was responsible for the design and contents of its own exhibition. To introduce this younger generation of Dutch architects to a foreign audience, all ten individual presentations were compiled into one travelling exhibition. After a successful two-and-a-half-year tour, from Sao Paulo to Padua, the exhibition returns to the NAI from April 21 onwards under the title: The Return of 9 + 1. At most of the venues where the exhibition was on show, one or more of the architectural offices gave lectures. NAI Publishers issued the publication Nine + One - Ten Young Dutch Architectural Offices.

The exhibition series was entitled '9 + 1' because the ten offices do not form a group in the traditional sense of the word: they do not represent any school, style, or movement. What they do share is their approach to design, their methodology for uniting spatial and programmatic aspects. This does not, however, result in stylistic similarities, or in what could be termed a school or movement. Hence the name '9 + 1', which implies that there is always someone (never the same one) at odds with the rest.

Exhibition
The travelling exhibition was designed in such a way that it could be shown in any imaginable space without alterations. It consists of twelve inflatable plastic elements illuminated from inside: one element with an introductory text, ten elements for the ten offices, and a video element, added later to provide more extensive information about the offices. Attached to the inflatable elements are panels showing projects by each office. A model is contained within a rectangular niche in each object. A multi-media presentation showing recent projects by the offices has been added for the presentation in the Netherlands Architecture Institute.

Tour
The tour started in November 1997 at the III Architecture Biennale in Sao Paolo. It subsequenfly travelled to the Architektur Zentrum in Vienna, the SCI-Arc in Los Angeles, the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Edinburgh, the Palazzo Del Arte in Milan, the Architektenkammer in Hamburg, Museum Nagele, and in Padua on the invitation of Yearch (Young European architects project).