I agree with you that it's not about utilitarianism or lack of interest in aesthetics. Kim Kardashian's home is an extreme example (google it) and she was clear

I agree with you that it's not about utilitarianism or lack of interest in aesthetics. Kim Kardashian's home is an extreme example (google it) and she was clearly concerned with aesthetics when making decisions about how to decorate. However I don't think the opposite of the "industrial design" that you appreciate is "pastoralism" (the images in the article are, but they're also ugly). The opposite is hard to describe but the French do it well. Hannah Arendt: > Modern enchantment with "small things," though preached by early twentieth-century poetry in almost all European tongues, has found its classical presentation in the petit bonheur of the French people. Since the decay of their once great and glorious public realm, the French have become masters in the art of being happy among "small things," within the space of their own four walls, between chest and bed, table and chair, dog and cat and flowerpot, extending to these things a care and tenderness which, in a world where rapid industrialization constantly kills off the things of yesterday to produce today's objects, may even appear to be the world's last, purely humane corner.