A Florence Nightingale Foundation travel scholarship was used to support a nurse's journey to gather information and knowledge on aspects of building design for older people in emergency care. Evidence on the effect of the environment on senior care is well established and some areas have carefully considered this when planning facilities for older people. The travel opportunity was used to explore how large-scale building design was carried out, and to understand how mindsets, models of care and built environments influence the result of large-scale changes to building design to meet the needs of older people in hospital. Furthermore, this enabled an understanding of how demographic data, clinical evidence, outcomes and quality data were embedded into the processes of informing specific building design. The intention of this scholarship was for the author to be able to influence hearts and minds in her sphere so every opportunity can be taken to embrace a better, more informed approach to the therapeutic built environment, specifically for older people in hospital and community settings.