Welcome to Coolville

Telling Positive Urban Stories to Inspire the World

In cities large and small around the world, citizens and policymakers are making urban change happen. Creating stories that simply must be shared. World-renowned urbanist, author and TV host, Mikael Colville-Andersen, has been dedicated to curating and presenting these stories to the world for years. He has been referred to as the Anthony Bourdain of urbanism.

Through four seasons, Mikael has been visiting cities around the world with both his TV series The Life-Sized City as well as the Danish series Gadekamp (Street Fight). It’s a large, broadcast production and there are limits to what cities - or how many cities - he can visit.

This is where Mikael’s own Coolville Series comes in. It is a shorter-format, online series in the same vein as The Life-Sized City, where Mikael visits cities and curates a handful of the best urbanism stories. He’ll interview the people behind the projects, get a feel for the urban development in the city and package it into a professional film for online distribution. As well as posting on social media during the shoot.

See trailers for The Life-Sized City below to get an idea of style and format:

It's no secret that cities are changing faster than ever in what Mikael calls this Age of Urbanism. On all continents, in every city big or small, individuals and groups are taking the lead and bringing ideas to the streets. Together, they are creating modern, resilient cities focused on the vision of the humans who inhabit them. The Coolville Series will give voices to these passionate citizens who go above and beyond stereotypes and who dare to make a difference.

Mikael will be at the helm of intriguing and creative encounters with those who make up the social fabric that redefines city life, talking about public space, transport, family life, urban sprawl, bikeability and green initiatives- all on a life-sized scale. Interacting with true urban heroes, he gets dirt under his fingernails and puts theory to practice as he takes part in surprising urban innovations.

Below you can see recent videos from Paris and Ukraine, which is the kind of positive storytelling narrative that Mikael wants to spread about the good things happening in a city. These two clips were filmed with a smartphone - the Coolville series will be filmed with a proper tv crew.

The Audience

The Coolville Series will attract the same audience as The Life-Sized City series. Through four seasons and 30 countries where the series is shown, we have an excellent indication of our audience. It appeals to a diverse and engaged audience with a shared interest in urban development, sustainability, and the intricate relationship between people and their urban environments.

Professionals in urbanism (architects, planners, designers) are the most obvious viewer group but both series have a distinct travel vibe that attracts a wider range of viewers. It is popular among young people but we also have a strong family segment in for example, Canada, the US and Denmark. In Belgium, the series is the most popular series in its timeslot for women. The general public is drawn to its accessible narrative style and thought-provoking discussions on topics such as green spaces, transportation, and community interactions.

The series captivates a global audience, drawing in viewers from diverse cultural backgrounds and geographical locations, reflecting the universal curiosity about the evolution of cities.

Sponsorship & Collab

With a passionate corporate sponsor the Coolville Series will be able to expand its reach and be flexible in covering cities and topics. We’ll be able to shoot content relevant to urbanism but also have the ability to target specific markets that are of importance for the sponsor’s corporate strategy.

The Clients

In some cases, it will be possible to engage municipal, regional and national Tourism Offices - anyone who wants to promote their positive urban stories. We have seen that in some cases the City teams up with the Tourism Office in helping off-set the costs of financing the shoot.

Mikael has had previous collaborations as an influencer with: City of Helsinki /, City of Umeå, Sweden / City of Oulu, Finland / City of Tallinn / as well as various product brands.

Social Media

Mikael will use his own SoMe: Instagram (13,500+), Twitter (40,000+), Facebook (4500+), LinkedIn (1400+) and Threads (new).

Add to that cross-posting and native posting on a growing SoMe presence for the series: YouTube channel (30,000+), Twitter/X (3800+), Instagram (3500+), Facebook (6200+).

The Shoot & The Crew

With a shorter format, shooting in a city for the Coolville Series will not require a long shoot. Our researcher will find the best stories for us to cover, in advance. We will arrive with Mikael and a crew consisting of a cameraman and a sound man and we’ll employ a local “fixer“ to help us navigate the city and get to places on time.

We will plan for two days of shooting. This will require a minimum of four nights in a hotel for destinations in Europe and more if we have to travel further. The process, once we agree with a client, is as follows:

Research >> Remote interviews with potential guests >> Prepare shooting schedule >> Arrival and Shoot >> One week of editing >> Launch online.

The Host

Mikael Colville-Andersen has been working passionately to transform and improve cities for over a decade. He has worked tirelessly on urban planning projects in over 100 cities around the world.  A much sought-after speaker, Mikael has given his inspirational keynotes in scores of cities, combining his many urban philosophies with his work experience in cities in entertaining and thought-provoking presentations.

Mikael is best known for his philosophy about simplifying urban planning and urban cycling and how we should be designing our cities and streets instead of relying on traffic engineering. Using design - a human-to-human process - to make better the urban landscape will get more results quicker and teaming design up with anthropology, sociology and transport psychology first will ensure effective urban transformation.

Mikael’s parents emigrated from Denmark to Canada in 1953, where he was born. He left Canada at a young age and lived in cities around the world including Los Angeles, Suva, Melbourne, Hong Kong, Moscow, Paris and London. He settled in Copenhagen in the mid 1990s. He has two children.