Sounds a little like wmii[1]. I have it running here in X11, but it is no fun because I use few X11 apps.
Yeah, that's exactly the idea -- Ion was my first inspiration, but wmii is really fantastic these days, and is most clearly where I'm looking.
For now, the super-simple hack just to get three columns side-by-side:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jrk/182262643/
-jrk