A general method for the homogenization of rigid plastic or elastic-plastic layered structures is proposed. This method is based on a hybrid formulation of the constitutive equation for each phase, thus reducing the homogenization procedure to a simple mixture law. This non-classical hybrid formulation is obtained for both the rigid-plastic and elastic-plastic models. The resulting homogenized behaviour is then illustrated by some examples with special emphasis on the resulting anisontropy and in particular on the off-axis tensile behaviour.