"Dollhouse"-style Vertical Terrain?

I tend to make terrain by the quick and nasty method, so my problem is not making it, but storing it - even my small 4x4' tables of terrain take up significant amounts of space.  This is especially so of 28mm, and is a good argument in favour of 15mm, which takes a fraction (maybe 1/5th?) of the space.

Anyway, as an apartment dweller in my bachelor years, I know the solution to "not enough room" is often to go vertical.    I was looking at one of my daughter's dollhouses today and wondered "why don't we have more vertical wargames terrain?"

Usually multi-storey buildings work on a layer-cake principle (i..e lift off the roof to reveal minis on ground floor etc) but what if the building WAS the entire table?

This waist-high book cupboard (which I told my wife I was removing to "make more space in the bedroom") might make a solid framework. 28mm minis added for scale.

Obviously, it applies to more to skirmish games, but if you had removable interior "pieces" rather like a dollhouse, and a neutral interior paint scheme (grey?) it might be able to do service for a few genres - as a Resident Evil-style undergound bunker, a space station, a sealab, a Bavarian  mountain retreat.  At a pinch, it might be able to serve two scales (28mm and 15mm).

Anyway, I "liberated" small bookshelf which might make an easy start to a project.  I might remove the back wall to improve accessibility, and I'm thinking adding a few more "levels" with generous ceiling heights to allow me to reach in.  I could make the levels removable to increase configuration options.

 The cupboard is small and light enough to be easily lifted on a table so everything is eye height.

Moving between levels?  Movable elevator pieces whose location can be changed easily.  Maybe a few "portholes" or airlock doors (circular, so I can simply use a circular drill bit instead of having to faff about getting square cuts for doors)? 

The best thing is as long as the interior is relatively unmodified - it is still a cupboard. So I can actually store terrain in my terrain, yo.

Anyway, this is likely to be one of my whirlwind weekend projects (i.e. done in an afternoon, and damn the fine details) but I thought I'd air this scheme to my regulars for input before I start cutting and nailing.  I'm sure its been done before but my google-fu is too weak to find any similar projects. 

Terrible idea?  Good idea? Try it, fail, and let us learn from your bitter experience?

Any ideas or suggestions welcome (proviso: they do not require a lot of fiddly work: I am a famously lazy terrain maker).