Anisotropic hygro-expansion in hydrogel fibers owing to uniting 3D electrowriting and supramolecular polymer assembly

•Introduction of hierarchical structures into supramolecular hydrophilic polymer scaffolds by a combined top-down and bottom-up approach.•Combination of 3D printing and self-assembly.•3D electrowriting of hydrophilic polymers.•Introduction of anisotropic hygro-expansion.•The use of a full-field method in combination with a global digital height correlation algorithm to trace mesoscale morphology changes in three dimensions