There is a popular anecdote within my profession about two ambitious brothers. One day, the two brothers decided to try their hand at a few real estate developments. They tackled a couple of small- to medium- sized developments, worked hard and made a pretty penny. Deservedly so.

But it came to pass that their ambitions eventually got the better of them. They started risking money they hadn’t yet collected, to fund even larger projects they hadn’t planned well enough. Eventually, they bit off much more than they could chew and lost all the momentum they had gained. They ended up bankrupt and their projects were never completed.

Such stories are typical in every industry. Businesses come and go all the time and their stories are soon forgotten.

So why is this particular story so important? In the building industry, a massive failure isn’t easily forgotten. In fact, the legacy of these brothers’ failure lives on and is clearly visible.

Fourteen years ago, I had my first job as a waiter at a cafe in the Jerma Palace Hotel in Marsascala. This hotel served as a source of employment for many families in the area and it provided a sense of pride to the community. Eventually, the hotel was purchased by the Montebello brothers for an overly ambitious project that could never materialise.

The hotel was then run down and operations ceased. Tourists stopped coming, and jobs were lost. It was gutted of all the furniture and fittings.

Last summer, I visited the cafe I had worked in. It has since become a deteriorated shell of graffiti and rubbish, littered with evidence of bonfires, drug use and other illicit activities.

We need to pick out ‘sustainability’ from the box of catchphrases, and we have to start applying it in real life

Today, the former Jerma Palace Hotel is an un-rotting concrete carcass, a shadow of what it once was.

It stands as a monument to the impact of unsustainable greed, short-term goals and self-serving interests.

Similarly, the A3 Towers in Paola were a short-sighted venture from the Montebello brothers which plagued the area for far too long. Many sites around Malta were left with these unfinished cadavers.

While ambition is a very important trait in us Maltese, when it gets coupled with some quick successes, we can overdose on it. We would feel invincible until greed takes over and brings our ruin. This becomes unfair when we bring down whole communities, skylines and districts with us.

While development is an important industry in Malta, when it gets carried out without the least shred of social conscience or respect towards the community, simply everyone ends up on the losing side.

So why is this tale so important?

In the past few months, I’ve been overtaken by a sense of dread that the country is being overtaken by the Montebello Syndrome. The idea of a quick reward is blinding some people to the fact that many types of risk exist: some short term, some long.

Most are not that apparent while still being of substantial importance. I’ve heard that several ambitious projects are in the pipeline, but each one seems to be designed in isolation.

We have no idea how these will impact our infrastructure. We have no idea how they will impact our societies. We have no idea how they will work with each other. We have no idea if these projects will even work or for how long. We have no idea what will happen if they don’t work as envisaged.

The failure of a small- to medium-scale development can ruin a handful of investors and spoil a streetscape.

The failure of a large-scale project has the potential to damage a whole community, its economy and its social structure.

The Jerma should be a lesson to us all. While I remember standing on the broken tilework of what was my first workplace, I’m haunted by the thought of what would happen if such a catastrophe were to happen on a larger scale. We need to pick out ‘sustainability’ from the box of catchphrases, and we have to start applying it in real life.

I’m excited about what the future has in store for our urbanised areas and skylines, but we can’t have any more Jermas.

While I’m aware that it has already started creeping in, we have to do our best to prevent a nationwide case of the Montebello Syndrome from taking over, as soon as possible. Actually, now.

Christopher Mintoff is president of the Chamber of Architects.