An urban village is an erstwhile rural village enveloped by the formal city yet retaining distinct social and morphological characteristics. Fragmentary formal integration and piecemeal land acquisition leads the villagers to extend, densify and diversify the village – a process best understood through the lens of informal urbanism. This densification and diversification of urban villages has commonly been characterized as disorganized and haphazard – transgressing building codes indiscriminately. Through extensive mapping and comparison of twelve urban villages in Beijing, Guangzhou, Delhi and Bangalore, this research articulates the ways in which access networks, building density and functional mix are spatially organized, how they are mutually interdependent, and what inferences can be made on how urban villages transform over time. Despite their different context, urban villages demonstrate recurring patterns in the configuration and transformation of their access, density and mix that embody urban design principles that are attuned to their residents need. Urban villages are not just at different ‘stages of growth’ under the impact of market forces but are also affected by state regulation.