Born in Turin in 1920, Raffaele Contigiani was a soldier in his early life, and a prisoner in Germany during the second World War. After graduating, from 1950 to 1970, he received important commissions not only in Italy but equally in Africa and East Europe. His first commissions were pavilions for international fairs representing Italy abroad and the Italian Chamber of Commerce, some of which were in Libya and Tunisia around 1954. He then became a consultant for RAI - the Italian national television - with several projects for fairs in North Africa.  Through this contacts, Contigiani designed several hotels in Tunisia in the late 60s (apparently supported by Bourguiba). Hotel du Lac is one of those projects. Contigiani devoted much of his time to painting.