Map Ideas?
Sorry. I had to.
Anyways, maybe you could leave the office and walk out to a giant view of an underground test shaft and enter a test sphere to preform maintenance or something, then get stuck after something goes wrong.
How about a section inside the "workings" of a standard funnel (ie; attempt to re-create the model in over-sized brushes) using the funnels "eddie-currents" as mini-funnels to solve a problem and escape...
There was a Toy Story game on my old GameBoy that had a section where you had to navigate the inner workings of a Vending Machine and Claw Game, had hazards of moving pistons (crushers), falling drink cans, coins tube warp pipes (vactubes) and electric sparks (fizzler/death fields)...
Is that the type of ideas/ things you had in mind ??
Basically, you have given yourself a challenge which is far above where I think you are. I suggest you make some standard test chambers to flesh out your creative style. Then you can start on the strange things. You can't really do strange until you know what normal is.