They normally spend their days outdoors foraging, pecking and scratching, looking for food. They will also sumbathe and dust bathe outdoors if available. They will not be happy if confined to a building 24/7.
Where I live, chickens are often kept (the "old fashioned" style) in a run with a board laying over one end for a bit of a roof. I actually think if given the choice they would prefer this to a building.
By "old-fasioned" style, do you mean that there is not a coop? Seems I've seen this before, one end of a run covered on three sides with nest boxes under the covered roof part.