IN PICS: The most spectacular university buildings in the world

A list compiled by Hamburg-based real estate data mining company Emporis.

According to Emporis, Lomonosov Moscow State University's main building, dating from 1953, is the world's tallest university building at 240 meters in height.

Over its 36 stories it contains everything one could expect from an educational institution, including a 1,500-seat auditorium, seminar rooms, a library, and even a museum.

A further example of concentration of knowledge is the Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower in Tokyo: Completed in 2008, the 204-meter-tall, cocoon-shaped skyscraper is home to no fewer than three different colleges, their teaching rooms offering breathtaking views of the city.

By contrast, the architects of the Swanston Academic Building and the Sharp Centre for Design use colorful elements to set accents. The first catches the eye with its wavy and jagged facade that mirrors the colours of the surrounding buildings.

Inside, loud red, green and yellow are the dominant hues.

The shape and coloring of the Sharp Centre for Design also represent a distinct contrast to its surroundings: The Centre's black-and-white structure, which is reminiscent of a chessboard, stands on bright stilts and appears to hover above the neighboring buildings.

Perhaps less colourful, but at least as spectacular, is the effect created by Bradfield Hall at Cornell University. The dark-red brick building with its rectangular and round pillars is almost entirely windowless, all of which combines to give it the weighty, massive appearance of a medieval fort.

The Graduate Centre of London Metropolitan University and the Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre in Hong Kong also opt for monochrome facades, in gray and white respectively.

Nevertheless, both buildings jump straight out of the landscape: The slanting walls with their narrow window slits seem to positively sink into one another.