Hi there,
A friend of mine came up with an architecture lesson once using foil
relief... She discussed lines and architectural elements. I think there
was a handout from SchoolArts too. She had them create the lines of the
building with noodles, toothpicks, whatever, on cardboard, then wrap the
whole thing with foil. I think she rubbed on shoe polish or something to
patina it.
It looked pretty cool! Sounds like you got lots of great ideas though...