Phoenix company building shelters from shipping containers up for SXSW award

Zoom in: The company has two main offerings constructed from shipping containers:

• Sparkboxes, which range from 160 to 363 square feet of livable space, can include a bathroom with an incinerator toilet that burns waste.
• X-Wings are made of four containers in an "X" configuration. Each container has multiple individual sleeping compartments.

The intrigue: Both products are powered 100% by the sun during the day and lithium batteries at night, allowing them to be quickly deployed almost anywhere because they don't need to connect to utilities.

What they're saying: Steel + Spark cofounder Brian Stark told Axios Phoenix the idea for the X-Wing came after seeing the unsustainable, unsafe and undignified shelters that were popping up around the West.

• "Within the world of unsheltered homelessness there's not a lot of innovation happening," he said.
• "We have a solution here that takes into account people's lives."

Be smart: If you're attending SXSW, you can meet the Steel + Spark team at the finalists showcase on March 9.

• Winners will be announced March 11.