Kannelmäki is located a bit more than ten kilometres from the centre of Helsinki, and is bounded by Kehä I in the south, Hämeenlinnanväylä in the east, and the Mätäjoki river in the west and north.

[1] The streets in Kannelmäki are named after music and villages in Ostrobothnia.

Because of the wishes of the local inhabitants, the name was changed to Kannelmäki – Gamlas in 1959.

[3] Services in Kannelmäki are concentrated in the shopping centre designed by Erkki Karvinen and opened in 1959,[3] the Prisma hypermarket building (originally opened in 1973 as Eka-Market, then as Maxi[3]) and the surroundings of the Kannelmäki railway station.

Prisma was expanded into a larger complex called the Shopping Centre Kaari in October 2013, now containing a department store, a restaurant area and about 80 specialty stores.