The heavy door makes a building’s welcome depend on somebody else’s available hand.

A door that takes real force decides who can enter alone. For anyone with weak arms, full hands or a pushchair, going in stops being a decision and becomes a matter of whether somebody is passing. The welcome a building intends is then only as reliable as strangers are. Weight is a design choice with social consequences.

Notice the doors on your usual route and how much they ask of a person. If you have any say over a space, an opener or a lighter closer changes who can come and go independently. And when you are the passing hand, hold it without making an occasion of it.