I think the few of us who are both designers AND fabricators become aware of these incongruities and frustrations in modern aesthetics perhaps sooner than most...
I have a current challenge that I am hoping to morph into a hybrid style by marrying the ORGANIC (which I usually associate with Art Nouveau),with the INDUSTRIAL which is the clients preferred aesthetic.
I've been commissioned by a monster design studio in L.A. (they make monster props and prosthetics) to make a large conference table with glass top 4'x9'.
They specifically requested "I-beam" legs.
My design (which has been approved and I am currently building)is a "trestle table"and will feature a large sculpted spinal vertebrae made with forged steel details as a structural member spanning the center of the large structure and connecting the two ends together.
In this way I give the clients their heavy industrial visual,but also soften that angularity and allude to an image from the natural world ,albeit represented in heavy industrial materials (forged 1/2 inch plate).The spinal column is designed to be seen just beneath the glass top.