As mentioned the ciabatta dough is a high hydration dough meaning it is a slack dough with lots of water content which makes it impossible to knead in a bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment like a regular bread recipe which actually strengthens the gluten strands creating the bread structure once baked. So to get the same effect we follow the folding process in this recipe. The stretch and fold technique redistributes the yeast all around helping to create the air pockets and also strengthening the gluten strands which helps the bread to hold and get that oven spring whilst baking.