File Name : s figure s1a.tif Caption : figure s1: experimental conditions. left panel - gelation process: the mold is filled with dissolved cellulose and then submerged in the ethanol bath. the mold allows diffusion of ethanol into the cellulose solution and diffusion of tmgh[oac] outwards into the bath, i.e. solvent and antisolvent are exchanged. File Name : s figure s1b.tif Caption : figure s1: experimental conditions. right panel – sample orientation in the x-ray beam: the beam hits the 12 mm high and 7.5 mm wide samples at the lower edge about in the middle. the blue circle is indicating where the x-ray beam hits the sample, which is compressed from above. the sample colour gradient and the blue double arrows indicate the degree of anisotropy in the sample. File Name : s figure s2.tif Caption : figure s2: x-ray transmission measured during the in-situ experiments. the measurement data are depicted as symbols, while the expected change t(c) is depicted as line. File Name : s figure s3.tif Caption : figure s3: typical fit of the scattering data with gnom program: distance distribution functions (left panel) and corresponding scattering data with the fit curves in i(q) representation (right panel). scattering curves recorded at 0%, 35% and 80% compression from a sample with bulk density of (48 mg cm-3). File Name : s figure s4.tif Caption : figure s4: additional data of the samples with 34 mg cm-3 (upper line) and with 48 mg cm-3 (lower line). the diagrams show the dimensionality parameter n, evaluated in the low q regime, the porod exponent m and the evaluated for high-q regime together with the stress-strain curves. File Name : s figure s5.tif Caption : figure s5: comparison of scattering curves i(qx) and i(qy) evaluation from a sample with bulk density of (48 mg cm-3) at 0%, 35% and 80% compressive strain. i(qx) are depicted orange and are evaluated in a much smaller q-range, i(qy) curves are blue and are evaluated in the full accessible q-range. File Name : s figure s6.tif Caption : figure s6: pore size distributions calculated from n2 desorption isotherms via the bjh method for an uncompressed anisotropic aerogel and an anisotropic aerogel sample uniaxially compressed to 40% of its initial height