Forming a composite of a material with (ordinary) positive thermal expansion with a material with (anomalous) negative thermal expansion could allow for tailoring the thermal expansion of the composites or even having composites with a thermal expansion close to zero. Negative and positive thermal expansion hereby compensate each other to a certain amount if the temperature is changed. Tailoring the overall thermal expansion coefficient (CTE) to a certain value can be achieved by varying the volume fractions of the different materials contributing to the thermal expansion of the composite.