Certainly, the two ssid option will allow physical separation, provided the laptops do not need to roam. However, if that scenario is undesireable, the best way to physically load balance the network would be to perform a site survey and use lower powered cells to create smaller cell sizes that can only cover 'half' of the intended area. Two cells with 10 - 20 % overlap (same ssid) will create the physical separation you are looking for. The drawback to this, will be when more than half of the clients are on one side or the other. The fix to that will be to add more AP's at low power to add aggregate throughput.
If you have a room like a cubicle farm with very little in the way of signals, you need to be more creative as to where you place the AP's.
Case in point - a large break area (lunchroom) in a hospital. You will never get three or four AP's cells' small enough (without using pico cell methodology which will cost more than you probably want to spend). Rather then place 4 AP's in one room, place them in 4 rooms close by and let the signals bleed in to such a point where the physical balancing can be achieved. Granted the sweet spots will be on the other side of the walls and you may not need signal there, but the bleed over may be just enough to get what you need in the "lunchroom". This cannot be done properly without a survey.
