partitioning rectangles into sub-rectangles -- CSS vs <table>

I've been fiddling with this problem (vaguely related to Euler diagrams) off
and on for a decade or so:

 

http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/1116/number-of-ways-to-partition-a-r
ectangle-into-n-sub-rectangles

 

Now, here is the question for you folks:

 

We are told that using HTML tables to divide space into geometry is a
terrible non-non, akin, perhaps to fratricide or, at least, fracking. Alas,
colspan and rowspan (curse the folks who invented them!) makes it so
painless (see for example, the little table (a geometric metaphor for the
thought process) at http://cs.sru.edu/~ddailey/Navigability.html) ! Is there
any way nearly so easy to do this with CSS? I was once told that it was
impossible in CSS2, but that CSS3 would make it again possible (though
doubtlessly far more complex).

 

I know that the subject raises passion in certain communities where ideology
trumps pragmatism, but mathematics is ultimately a purer ideology, methinks,
than web-standards-dogma, whence the question.

 

Cheers

David