Building of reed thatched roofs has long tradition in several European countries. Thatched roofs belong also to present-day construction for example in Netherlands, Denmark and Germany and reed roofs can be seen even in contemporary buildings.

In Estonia around 20 000 m2 of reed roof is built per year showing that thatching tradition and know-how continues also there. Reed entrepreneurship can obviously be a profitable business in some countries. In Finland reed construction occurred before 2nd World War, but since then reed utilization has decreased to almost nil. Many countries have instructions or directives for improving the fire safety of reed roofs.

In Cofreen Finnish partner ELY is promoting the planning, marketing and construction of reed thatched residential area into the city of Salo.

• Rauvolanniittu - Modern Reed Construction in an New Residential Area

TUAS is updating the Building Information (BI) card for reed thatched roofs, the old one is from 1943. In Finland BI cards are used as source of information for appropriate methods of building.

• Building Instruction Card RT 85-108xx DRAFT 

TUAS is making comparative molding tests with reed and other organic materials.